


Episode 1-13 - "The Art of Diplomacy"

by stgjr



Series: Undiscovered Frontier Season 1 - "Seeking the Past" [13]
Category: Multi-Fandom, Original Work, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Multiple Crossovers, Multiverse, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-20 23:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10673097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stgjr/pseuds/stgjr
Summary: With war raging in Universe S4W8, the Aurora is sent on a crucial diplomatic mission to win allies in the S5T3 (Star Trek) Universe.





	1. Chapter 1

**Teaser**  
  
Streaks of green, blue, and amber energy criss-crossed the orbit of the planet called Trenik. Small fighter craft buzzed in every direction, fighting their own duels in the airless void in keeping their counterparts away from larger targets. Ships continued to streak through this fire, taking hits against their protective deflector fields that would lit up bright blue over and over, all seeking the safe distance from the planet's mass in order to escape from the ongoing conflict.  
  
An Alakin warbird came up beside them. A winged ship of red coloring and yellow wings, the vessel was firing repeated blasts of blue energy from the particle cannons in its prow and main body. Green energy ran across its faltering shields repeatedly until they collapsed. Flame plumed from the red hull where the energy bolts and beams now struck the armored hull plating. Ahead of this winged warship a gray-colored vessel moved into position, pouring missile and energy fire into it and blocking its path and that of the smaller ships it was protecting. The gray vessel lacked the sleek beauty of its foe; it was boxy, with smoothed edges, and its hull slanted in the middle to a lower section that bore twin engine nacelles much like the gold-colored ones at the tips of the wings of the winged starship; save that instead of the gold, it was tipped with blue light and majority red in the bulk of the nacelle's surface.  
  
And along the upper and lower armored hull plating of the ship was an insignia known and dreaded across the multiverse.  
  
The hooked cross, black, set on a white circle in a red square.  
  
The insignia of the Third Reich; the Nazi Empire.  
  
The Nazi warship was clearly getting the better of its winged adversary, which was too busy protecting those helpless civilian ships beside it to maneuver freely. The Alakins did not back down from the fight, but it was a losing fight.  
  
This changed when a series of sapphire bolts of energy slammed into the flickering shields of the Nazi cruiser. Amber bolts and beams played over the shields and overtaxed them, leaving them weakened to the blue-white sparks of light that now passed effortlessly to crash into the hull of the gray-hulled ship. Its weapons quieted. Energy and flame briefly erupted from its damaged hull before defense mechanisms staunched the wounds.  
  
Undaunted, _Starship Aurora_ continued her attack.  
  
The azure-hulled starship loomed gracefully over the stricken winged ship. Again her bow cannons blazed with sapphire fury; again the Nazi cruiser's shields failed. This time her torpedoes were joined by further blue bolts and torpedoes from the winged ship. The damage nearly gutted the enemy ship.  
  
" _Sedan_ -class cruiser is turning away, she's badly damaged and trying to get out of the fight" Jarod reported on the bridge of the _Aurora_. The ship shook again; their wounded foe was firing at them in defiance. "Shields holding at sixty percent."  
  
Robert kept an eye toward the tactical display of Trenik and its orbital spaces. "Angel, finish them off," he ordered.  
  
"Exactly what I'm doing, sir," Angel answered from tactical. Under her control the _Aurora_ 's weapons continued to batter their foe. "Their shields are failing. A few more good hits and…"  
  
"I've got more warp contacts coming in!" Caterina turned in her chair at the science station. "Subspace distortions are consistent with anti-matter pulse drives!"  
  
"Great. _More_ Nazis," Julia breathed from her seat at Robert's right.. "Jarod, what is our status on the evacuation?"  
  
"The last evac ships are lifting off now," Jarod said. "The current convoy is going to warp in three… two… one!"  
  
The civilian ships that had fled Trenik elongated one-by-one and disappeared; bound at warp flight speeds away from the raging battle.  
  
The ship shuddered again. "Shields at fifty-seven percent," Jarod said.  
  
"The _Wakipa_ 's shields are failing," Julia added. "Captain Dukap is having to maneuver his ship away from the fight."  
  
On the screen the Alakin warbird pulled away in space, trying to avoid further fire from the burning Nazi heavy cruiser. Angel was still firing into it; another barrage from _Aurora_ 's pulse plasma cannons in the bow caused the starboard nacelle of the Nazi cruiser to explode.  
  
A sense of elation went through Robert when the next spread of solar torpedoes crashed into the enemy ship. White energy erupted from within the Nazi cruiser's hull. A moment later, the remaining debris and scrap metal was a dead, hollowed hulk in the orbit of Trenik.  
  
_That wasn't Lamper's ship…_ , he thought, recalling their first contact with the Third Reich not half a year before. Even then he, and Captain Joachim Lamper, had agreed with each other that regardless of their ability to work together against pirates, war between their governments was inevitable. " _We are your nightmare and you are our's_ ," Lamper had said.  
  
And he had proven distressingly right.  
  
"What about the _Bolivar_?", Robert asked, referring to the FedStar heavy cruiser that had accompanied them to Trenik.  
  
"Still engaged to the other Nazi cruiser," Julie answered. "It looks like they're winning."  
  
"Signal _Wakipa_ , tell them to fall back to the last convoy, we'll keep the enemy reinforcements off of them."  
  
"Signalling…"  
  
"Oh my God…" Cat looked up. "Those warp signatures! Captain, one of them…"  
  
Several more Nazi warships dropped out of warp ahead of them. Robert recognized four as _Z-2500_ destroyers. Their shield-disruptor torpedoes could pose a threat, but in general he wasn't afraid of even four of them, not with _Aurora_ 's advanced technology. More intimidating was another of the Nazi cruisers.  
  
But even more intimidating was the big ship in the center of the formation.  
  
"Confirmed. New contacts are led by an _Aryan_ -class dreadnought," Jarod said, with far more calm than the situation merited.  
  
Robert swallowed. They had faced one over two weeks ago. It hadn't been a conventional fight, and they'd gotten away after laming the dreadnought with a ram by the habitat vessel _Tikvah_. But this…  
  
"We can't stay here," he said. "Evasive maneuvers!"  
  
Locarno did what he could, and what he could do was very fancy flying with a kilometer-long starship. But they weren't a light ship that could shift and dodge incoming fire with the ease of an attack ship.  
  
Missiles erupted from the enemy cruiser, joined by disruptor fire. Their interceptors met the incoming missiles and shot them all down. The disruptor shots played over their shields without effect. "Shields at fifty-six percent," Jarod said.  
  
And then the dreadnought fired.  
  
Its three spinal-mount super-disruptors were right on target. Their emerald beams lanced right into _Aurora_ 's shields. The ship shook violently from the resulting strain on her defensive systems. Communications exploded in sparks. The Alakin lieutenant manning the station, Jupap, fell back from the station with the skin around his hand digits smoldering.  
  
"Shields down to thirty percent!"  
  
At the Engineering station, Lucy Lucero looked up. "We've lost one of the primary shield generators, diverting power to secondaries! Port shields have lost cohesion!"  
  
The ship kept rocking as disruptor fire poured into the weakened port shields, scouring hull and tearing into the armor of the _Aurora_. "Multiple hull breaches," Jarod warned. "Armor self-repair systems are working to cover the damage."  
  
"Bring the bow to bear!", Robert shouted.  
  
Locarno did so, enabling another shot from the enemy dreadnought to miss. Behind them the _Bolivar_ moved up. Its design was arrow-like, long with sharp, sleek aesthetics. Phaser fire erupted from the cannons in the ship's prow. It was moving in fast with its gravitic drive lit up an intense blue.  
  
_Aurora_ 's fire joined the _Bolivar_ 's. Angel let the Reich dreadnought have it with a full barrage from the bow pulse plasma cannons, the bow-facing phasers, and the torpedo launchers. _Bolivar_ 's own armaments continued to lay into the Reich ship.  
  
But unlike the cruiser, the dreadnought's shields didn't fail from the barrage. "Enemy shields still at ninety-two percent effectiveness," Jarod said.  
  
"Sweet Mother of God, how much punishment can those things take?!", Angel shouted, even as she poured more fire into the enemy dreadnought.  
  
The _Aryan_ -class dreadnought opened up again. This time, her target was the _Bolivar_. _Bolivar_ jinked to avoid the super-disruptor shots and evaded two; the beam that made impact slammed into the ship's shields and destabilized them.  
  
Unfortunately, this provided ample opportunity for the enemy _Z-2500_ starships to slip in. Intense bursts of white energy came from their blow emplacements. "Disruptor torpedoes!", Jarod shouted.  
  
_Aurora_ 's interceptors fired, seeking to intersect the incoming torpedoes with particle bursts that would detonate them. But the energy fields propelling the projectiles - and providing them shield-disrupting power - kept most from being destroyed.  
  
Again _Aurora_ shook hard. The first two torpedoes slammed against her bow shields and caused them to flicker and degrade. A third slammed into the ventral hull of the primary section. The ship's shaking was so intense that the crew were being bruised by their harnesses. A cry of pain caused Robert to turn and see where sparks were still flying from tactical. "Angel!", he called out.  
  
Angel looked up. Her hands moved gingerly back to their station as emergency systems restored the control panel; she'd suffered an electrical burn to her hands. "I'm fine," she lied. "Dammit, we've lost two of the bow pulse plasma cannons."  
  
"Bow shields have lost cohesion!"  
  
But what had happened to them didn't compare to _Bolivar_. Her shields failed completely on the first torpedo strike; four more of the torpedoes slammed into her one by one. Flame and energy erupted from the crushed prow of the cruiser and her gravitic drive started to die down.  
  
The Nazi dreadnought fired again. And she didn't miss. All three super-disruptor beams bored into the _Bolivar_.  
  
The FedStar cruiser blew apart in a white fireball.  
  
More shots were striking _Aurora_ 's hull even as this occurred. "Bow shields aren't stopping anything!", Lucy shouted.  
  
"We've got damage on all decks in the bow area sections!", Jarod added. "Hull breaches in Decks 3 through 10 and 12 through 15!"  
  
"Come about! Get us distance!", Robert shouted. Locarno swung the _Aurora_ away from the monster dreadnought, turning to port to present the starboard shields.  
  
Just in time; the dreadnought fired again. _Aurora_ shook hard. "Shield systems down to twenty-five percent," Jarod warned.  
  
"Incoming disruptor torpedoes!" The _Z-2500s_ again.  
  
Despite the injuries to her hands Angel was able to use her phaser cannons to blast all but two of the torpedoes away before they slammed into _Aurora_ 's shields and exploded. Because the shields were still strong on that side the torpedoes didn't collapse them and the fire that poured into the starboard shield was resisted. For the moment.  
  
" _Captain Dale, you must withdraw!_ " The voice over the tactical comm line was Dukap's, identifiable by the chirping nature of Alakin speech translated into Human vocabulary. "Wakipa _can cover the last convoy until its escape._ "  
  
"Captain Dukap, your ship's shields are out, you won't last!"  
  
" _No. But our people must get to safety. And the fleet cannot afford to lose the_ Aurora _as well. Withdraw, now!_ "  
  
Robert clenched his teeth. Like most captains in the Alliance service, Dukap had seniority in rank and in rate. Most officers would consider his orders binding.  
  
But it rankled. The idea of leaving someone behind.  
  
The ship shuddered violently again. This time it was secondary tactical that exploded in sparks. "That dreadnought still has a bead on us," Jarod pointed out. "Our shields are collapsing!"  
  
"The entire shield system is failing!", Lucy added.  
  
Robert knew he had no choice. "Recall all surviving fighters! Now! Locarno, full impulse, break off from the fight! Jarod, have the transporters beam as many of our escape pods in as they can while we pass by."  
  
_Aurora_ broke away from the engagement. Her Mongoose fighters followed, coming in for a landing as she moved away from the planet. Around them intact escape pods, from ejected fighter pilots, began to disappear in columns of white light.  
  
"The dreadnought's turning toward the planet. Enemy cruiser…" They shook again from another hit. One of the auxiliary stations sparked. "...is trailing. Two of the _Z-2500_ s are pursuing us and trying to lock torpedoes again."  
  
"Fire aft weapons, make them break off."  
  
At Angel's command the rear-facing pulse plasma cannons fired. The two emplacements sent repeated bursts of sapphire energy that the nimble dagger-shaped warships jinked to avoid. A spread of torpedoes found one and battered its shields down enough that the last two torpedoes hit bare hull, leaving the ship a flaming wreck.  
  
Behind them, the Reich cruiser engaged the _Wakipa_. The stricken Alakin warbird poured fire from her particle cannons into the fresh enemy. It was to no avail beyond keeping their attention as the final group of civilian ships broke from lower orbit and approached a safe position to warp out.  
  
The dreadnought's disruptors lashed out. The spinal super-disruptors struck home on one of the solid-hulled civilian transports. The civilian ship literally disintegrated under the attack until it disappeared in a white ball of energy. Several of the other ships took hits and began spewing flames and atmosphere, their safety systems overtaxed by the assault.  
  
Another barrage would have destroyed most of the remaining ships. But Captain Dukap maneuvered his ship to intercept that fire. Instead the fury of the _Aryan_ -class ship vented against the armored hull of the _Wakipa_. Flames and debris spewed forth from the wounds that resulted in the warbird. But the Alakin ship defiantly retorted with torpedoes and particle cannon fire that battered the shields on the cruiser.  
  
The Reich warships began a maneuver to get around the dying _Wakipa_ and get at the civilians she was protecting. But they were too late. Robert felt a surge of elation at seeing the _Wakipa_ 's surviving charges start going to warp, one after the other. In the span of about five seconds, they were out of the system.  
  
_Wakipa_ turned toward her foes. But that was all she would do. Several beams and bursts of emerald disruptor fire tore into the warbird. The super-disruptors of the dreadnought ripped her guts out and sliced her wings off. A missile found her engineering spaces a moment later.  
  
All Robert and his friends could do was watch as Captain Dukap and his crew of four hundred plus Alakin died in a white fireball of matter-antimatter annihilation.  
  
Nobody immediately noted that the Reich destroyer pursuing them had decided not to risk the fate of her sister ship and had turned away. "Laurent's last flight is coming in," Julia said, if just to end the stunned silence on the bridge.  
  
"Set course for Harris Station, Mister Locarno," Robert said quietly.  
  
"The Reich ships are taking up orbits over the Alakin colony sites," Jarod reported. "They're firing."  
  
Robert forced himself to watch the result. Emerald beams and bursts of energy slicing into the surface of the healthy garden world that the Alakin had settled just eight months before. Entire towns and cities being blasted into ruins in a matter of seconds.  
  
Just as they had in his dreams for months.  
  
"How… how many?", Robert asked. "How many didn't make it out?"  
  
Jarod checked his numbers. Probably just for show, Robert figured; he would know the numbers in his head already. "There were still sixty-two thousand five hundred and sixty-four civilians on the planet and two thousand Alakin on that transport that was destroyed. Counting the nine thousand we beamed up, that leaves roughly forty thousand survivors from Trenik."  
  
"Oh God…." Robert felt like throwing up.  
  
Caterina looked at them with tear-filled eyes. "There are no more life signs coming from the planet's surface," she said. "They're… they're all dead."  
  
"Flight deck reports all fighters have landed," Julia said, trying not to think about Caterina's report. "Commander Laurent is still counting casualties to the flight group."  
  
Robert buried his face in his palms. "Get us back to Harris," he ordered, speaking through his trembling hands. "Maximum warp."  
  
Locarno obeyed immediately. _Aurora_ jumped to warp, leaving behind her victorious enemies and the thousands they had failed to save.  
  
  
  
  


**Undiscovered Frontier  
_"The Art of Diplomacy"_**

  
  
  
  
_Ship's Log: ASV Aurora; 23 July 2641. Captain Robert Dale recording. We're still ten minutes out from Harris Station. Repairs to the ship have proceeded as fast as Mister Scott and his engineers can manage. The hull breaches caused ten casualties, six fatalities. We were able to recover all of our ejected flight crews, but we still lost eight pilots. This means I've lost roughly ninety-seven crew since the war started, another four hundred and eighty wounded. And as for the war…..  
  
We're losing.  
  
Since Krellan Nebula the Reich's warfleets and armies have been relentless. Every colony within thirty light years of the Nebula has been abandoned or destroyed. With human colonies the Reich lands troops and seizes them; if they're non-Human, they're bombed from orbit. Thousands of innocent Alakin, Dorei, and other species have died in just the past few weeks.  
  
And it's all my fault.  
  
I started this war at 33LA. I know I did. Everyone tries to tell me this was inevitable. But we would have had more time if only I had held back at 33LA. If only I'd canceled the operation the moment we had the security breaches that Changeling caused.  
  
All of this blood is on my hands too. And I'm not sure how well I can live with myself any more._  
  
  
Robert looked up from his computer monitor at the tone at his ready room door. He hit a key on the hard-light keyboard to file the log. "Come in," he said.  
  
The door slid open and Julia stepped in. She was holding a digital pad in her hand. Robert accepted it and moved his hand over the hard-light interface to check the data. "Looks like we won't be spending any major time in the drydock," he said. "This time."  
  
Julia nodded. "Yeah. And Leo wants you to know that Angel's burns weren't severe. She's getting dermal regeneration done now. She should be cleared for bridge duty tomorrow."  
  
"Good." Robert hput a stencil to the pad interface and signed his name in holographic light. A final stenzil press to the surface filed away the official damage report. "How's the crew holding up?"  
  
Julia slid into the seat across his desk. "Morale could be better," she admitted. "People miss their friends that have gone down in the fight."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Everyone's wondering about these reports that the Ninth Fleet beat them back at Grenaris," Julia continued. "If we managed to pull out a win here, maybe we can hold them back before they get to Harris."  
  
"They'd already be to Harris if not for the Phosako," Robert observed. "Their attack on the Reich's fleet bases after Krellan Nebula is the only reason the Reich's blitz hasn't gotten that far yet."  
  
"Probably," Julia agreed. "So that's a win for us, I guess. We're the ones who made first contact with the Phosako and made sure they would see us as natural allies."  
  
"Not quite natural, if you remember what Commander Kelsuulo was telling us ," Robert pointed out.  
  
Julia remained silent for a minute. "The crew needs you to be a leader right now," she reminded him for the upteenth time. "They don't need to see you wallow about in self-pity and guilt."  
  
"My decision caused this war," Robert pointed out. "If we'd only had more time…"  
  
"It wouldn't have mattered if the Reich had found that Darglan data facility," she said. "Then they'd have eventually found the Facility Cat's talking about. And we wouldn't even know it existed yet."  
  
Robert went quiet at that. "You think we were the only ones who could have done that mission?' he asked.  
  
"I think that if you had delayed, there was a good chance the Reich would have realized something was up and would have intensified patrols there, those patrols might have found it. Probably would have eventually." Julia leaned forward in the seat and reached across the desk, settling her hand on his. "I think, Robert, that we had already tipped our hand. You had to act then and there before the Nazis could respond."  
  
"So you would have made the same call I did?"  
  
"About that? Yes." She shook her head. "I would have told Zack about Draynal, though."  
  
"Yeah." Robert sighed. His decision to not speak on the suspicion he and Meridina had felt, without evidence granted, that Lieutenant Draynal was not whom he had seemed had been why Zack had not paid any mind to his "last-minute" (and forged) transfer to _Koenig_ for the 33LA mission… which had allowed the Changeling to sabotage the ship and cause the battle with the Nazis at 33LA. A call that he regretted bitterly, as it had contributed to Zack Carrey's alienation from the others and ultimately his desire to depart _Aurora_ and get a different assignment for his ship, the _Koenig_. "I miss Zack," Robert admitted. "If he were here, he'd probably put an arm around my neck and try to talk me into a baseball practice or something."  
  
"He'd know what to say, that's for sure," Julia agreed. She tried not to think about how Zack might feel over the situation between them, though. Sometimes she still had trouble accepting his confession of romantic love for her. "Anyway, I should get back out there. We're coming up on Harris Station by now, I'm sure."  
  
"Probably" Robert agreed. "Maybe we'll have some good news…."  
  
" _Jarod to Dale,_ " came the voice of the ship's operations officer. Jarod was presumably manning the bridge while Julia was in here. " _We're arriving at Harris. You… should come and see this._ "  
  
Robert and Julia exchanged worried looks and went to the exit. They arrived on the bridge, where Jarod stood up from the command chair. His eyes were still fixed on the holoviewer. They turned and faced it.  
  
Harris Station was still burning.  
  
It wasn't destroyed. They could verify that in the first several seconds. The core of the station was completely intact, as were many of the arms reaching out from the center to provide docking ports. But several of those arms were wrecks of metal and debris. Half of the drydock facilities were visibly destroyed.  
  
Even worse was the number of ships that had been laid to waste. A Dorei starbird to their left looked completely dead. Several other ships were in various stages of disrepair.  
  
And in one of the drydock berths, the dreadnought _Achilles_ had been reduced to a burning, twisted wreck.  
  
"What the hell…?!", Julia gasped.  
  
Robert took his seat while surveying the destruction. "Jarod, signal Admiral Relini. Tell her that we're ready to dispatch rescue teams to assist."  
  
"Sending the signal now."  
  
"Looks like we've got some friends here," Locarno observed. Robert looked toward the distance and noticed what he meant.  
  
Hovering near Harris Station was a fairly-sized flotilla of starships. He'd seen them before: Phosako vessels.  
  
"Hell of a way to greet our allies," Locarno muttered.  
  
"It doesn't exactly make us look good," Robert agreed.  
  
"I'm reading debris from Reich attack ships," Jarod noted.. "It looks like this was some sort of mass raid. I guess our side got some before they could retreat."  
  
"Yeah." Robert shook his head. They kept losing ground, day by day, and now this? Harris Station was the main fleet base in S4W8. And the Nazis had just given it a hard drubbing.  
  
"Admiral Relini is responding," Jarod said.  
  
The Dorei woman appeared on their holoviewer. She was blue-skinned and teal-spotted, with long purple hair bound up in a series of buns at the back of her head. Piercing blue eyes looked at Robert and his crew, and they were fraught with tension and maybe nervousness. " _Captain Dale._ " She didn't look pleased, or even relieved. " _I haven't had a chance to read over your report from Trenik._ "  
  
" _Bolivar_ and _Wakipa_ were destroyed," Robert answered. "We got most of the evac ships out before the main Nazi squadron arrived." He swallowed. "They had a dreadnought."  
  
Relini nodded. " _I see. God help them all._ " She looked distant for a moment. " _As you can see, we are not in any condition to give you proper repairs._ "  
  
"According to my operations officer our self-repair systems can handle the damage."  
  
" _That is good. I'll have Station Control relay a station-keeping position for you. You'll be wanted over on the station in a few hours, I imagine, so you may want rest._ "  
  
Robert thought that curious. In general Relini and Admiral Rutsinov had not wanted him to be around for strategy meetings of any kind, not that he had particularly minded. "Admiral, I've never attended anything before…"  
  
" _And you won't be now_ ," she answered. " _But I have been informed they'll want to see you._ "  
  
"Who?"  
  
" _President Morgan and Admiral Maran_ ," she replied. " _They're due to arrive in a few hours to meet with the leaders of the Phosako for a war summit._  
  
Suddenly the Reich raid on Harris made more sense. "Then this raid…"  
  
" _Undoubtedly an attempt to forestall the meeting, or a mistimed effort to exploit it for an attack. Either way, it will progress as planned, and the President has relayed to me that he will have a personal meeting with you to discuss a report from your science officer._ "  
  
Robert's eyes widened. "Oh. Oh yes, that one. I'll be ready for their arrival and when they call for me, Admiral."  
  
" _See that you are, Captain. Relini out._ "  
  
"Morgan must have seen our report about the new Facility," Julia said. "Think this is a plan to do something about it?'  
  
"I don't know," Robert answered. "We'll see."  
  
"You look like hell," Julia pointed out to him. "You should go and get some sleep."  
  
"Don't need it." "Didn't want it" was the more truthful reply, but he didn't say that. What good was sleep when his mind was constantly wracked by nightmares?  
  
Julia gave him a stern look. "No sleep means poor judgement, Robert. Get some. We need you rested."  
  
Ah. It was _that_ look. Robert sighed and nodded. "Alright. I'll go get some shuteye. Call me if anything happens."  
  
"You'll be the first to know," Julia lied. And he knew full well she wouldn't call him for anything short of a Nazi attack.  
  
  
  
  
After being released from the bridge Caterina had rushed back to Lab 1 to check on the decryption of the Darglan data from the 33LA facility. It had become her main past-time since the war began; they needed to find that alternate Facility before the Nazis got any indications of it. And since its acquisition is what helped lead to the war anyway…. it felt like a way to justify all of the death that Cat had seen over the past three weeks.  
'  
There were a few more universe designations from the data. Some technical schematics. A late entry to the Omega Threats list, even. But nothing more on the coordinates of the S4W8 Facility. _If only we knew where it was, exactly. We could find a way to get to it without alerting the Nazis…_  
  
The door swished open and admitted Angel. Her hands were still bandaged to protect the dermal regeneration that had healed her burns. "It's getting late, sis," she said to Cat. "You should get to sleep."  
  
"Don't wanna sleep," Cat said. "Too busy trying to find that Facility."  
  
"You've been running that program for weeks. And you admitted it'd take months to reconstruct everything." Angel went up and hugged her little sister from behind. "It'll still be here tomorrow."  
  
"But don't you see. This… this is why so many people are dying now." Cat shook her head as tears came to her eyes. She thought of all those innocent Alakin on Trenik. "It'll mean nothing if we can't find it. We have to before _they_ do."  
  
"And we will. But not if you're too sleepy to do your job right," Angel pointed out.  
  
Cat couldn't argue that. "Give me a few minutes," she said. "And I'll go to bed. I promise."  
  
Angel nodded. "Still having bad dreams, Cat?"  
  
"I'm not always having nightmares, Angel," Caterina protested. "And sometimes they're a bit of both and weird. I keep having these dreams of being chased through the ship by a big rock monster carrying a club."  
  
Angel smirked at that. "Really?'  
  
"Yeah and there's this really tall English guy running alongside me, wearing this really cool purple jacket and tie. " She shrugged. "But I can never remember much else when I dream of that."  
  
"Dreams are like that sometimes." She felt relieved her sister was having something other than nightmares about the beating she received on the _Battlestar Pegasus_. Angel looked over one of the consoles and tapped a few keys. "Another Omega-level threat, huh?"  
  
"Yeah. Must have been an extra one that our old Facility wasn't updated with."  
  
Angel brought up an image. It was a small object that soon expanded into a humanoid form. "....what is that?"  
  
"I'm not sure. It looks like some kind of gem-based life-form that form their own bodies, presumably made of hard-light or bio-replicated mass," Caterina answered. "I'm not even sure how such a species could evolve naturally. It might be artificially constructed."  
  
"Somehow they don't sound more dangerous than Daleks…" Angel tapped a key and the humanoid figure was shrunk to stand beside a planet that became gradually hollowed out. "....unless that's what they do to planets. Okay, yeah, they're as bad as Daleks, I guess."  
  
"A lot of those Omega level threats are _really_ scary," Caterina observed. "But I guess you don't need to be one to do horrible things."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"How many colonies have we lost?", Cat said. "how many people have died already? And we're just a couple weeks into this war. What if… what if we can't stop them? They've got so many ships…"  
  
"We'll stop them, Cat," Angel insisted. "Remember, they can't hit our shipyards. We'll just keep building ships and sending them through."  
  
"Unless they manage to get enough debris to recover our IU drives," Cat pointed out. "Or if they get their hands on that Facility. Then they can attack us everywhere."  
  
"That's not going to happen," Angel insisted. "Now, finish up what you're doing and go to bed. Okay?"  
  
Cat sighed. "Okay."  
  
  
  
  
Robert was grateful. He had been so exhausted he had slept without a nightmare.  
  
Which was a good thing given the sight he woke up to.  
  
The remains of Ninth Fleet.  
  
He stood on the bridge and watched the wounded dreadnought _Churchill_ limp into one of the few surviving drydocks she could be taken in by. The ship, from the British Stellar Commonwealth of Universe C5O2, had clearly been put through the wringer and she was evidently one of the luckier ones.  
  
"Sixty-four ships," Locarno sighed from the helm. "Out of how many?"  
  
"One hundred and eighty," Jarod said somberly.  
  
"At this rate we're going to run out of ships faster than we run out of colonies," Angel muttered.  
  
"At least the _Park_ survived again," Julia noted, seeing the small Darglan-model utility ship take up a small dock near the core of the station. "Ibraham's been doing great keeping her alive."  
  
Robert allowed himself a slight grin. Despite everything, the fact they hadn't lost _everyone_ they knew at Krellan Nebula to the Nazi attack had been a bit of a silver lining in this terrible dark cloud that had settled over their lives as of late. "Hopefully the Ninth Fleet gave the Nazis a bloody-enough nose that they'll have to back off for a while," he mused.  
  
"Interuniversal jump point forming," Jarod said. "I'm getting massive power signatures coming through. One of them… it's the _Kentan_."  
  
And it was clear why. The _Kentan_ was a massive vessel, single-hulled, with warp pod nacelles on either side and slightly angled upward by thick armored pylons. Launch decks on the top and bottom of the ship allowed for the massive Gersallian flagship to disgorge hundreds of starfighters; along the sides of the ship were massive particle cannon emplacements joined by legions of retro-fitted phaser strips.  
  
"The flagship of the Gersallian fleet," Julia murmured. "A dreadnought-carrier. Who would have thought of something like that?"  
  
"The Gersallians," Robert answered drolly.  
  
It wasn't alone. Beside it was a very large Dorei starbird, nearly the length of _Aurora_ but much wider and with far more weapons on her. "That's the _Dormari_ ," Jarod observed.  
  
"Flagship of the Dorei Federation," Robert murmured. "Named for the founder of the Federation and its first President."  
  
Behind these ships a third one came out. It was the closest to the design of the _Aurora_ , with a clear distinction between the primary and drive hulls but no neck or slant like Federation or Nazi ships. "The _Cincinnatus_." Robert shook his head and smiled. "Flagship of the Earth Confederacy. I always wondered if we'd see her."  
  
"It looks like someone's pulling out all of the stops." Julia marveled at the colossal ships now approaching Harris.  
  
The large dreadnought joined the other flagships in taking up station near the station. The flagship of the Earth Confederacy of H1E1, its purpose here was fairly clear by the extra ID signal being given off. It had a special designation today: "PTN".  
  
_Presidential Transport - Naval_.  
  
"Looks like the President is here," Robert said, standing up. "I'd better go get ready. Julia, you have the bridge."  
  
  
  
  
It was four hours before Robert was escorted into the Admiral's Office of the station. He found Morgan and Maran standing with Admiral Relini and… yes…. Admiral Davies. Robert showed no reaction to the hard look he got from the latter. "Captain Dale." Morgan gestured to a seat and sat down himself at the head of the kidney-shaped table. Robert was seated in the inward curve of the table, the President and the others on the opposite side. "First off, I would like to extend my gratitude for you for the fine work you did in the unsettled areas of N2S7. Princess Syrina and Director Anjila have informed me of their gratitude for your peaceful contact with the Colonies."  
  
"And yet you have made an enemy of that machine civilization with a direct assault on their positions," Davies pointed out. This won him cold looks from the rest of the room. "You seem to be making our Alliance a lot of enemies lately, Captain Dale."  
  
Morgan's look made it clear that he didn't appreciate Davies' remarks. Again Robert got a bad feeling about the tension in the room. It reminded him of when the Defense Committee had basically exonerated him over 33LA. He'd been given a reprimand, yes, but compared to the clear inclination of Davies and Defense Minister Hawthorne to remove him and the others from the _Aurora_ , it had barely counted as a slap on the wrist. And Davies had not been happy.  
  
"Additionally, your rescue of the people from _Tikvah_ has been a morale boost," Morgan continued. "I'm informed that Arik Shaham and his people are already providing useful political intelligence on the Third Reich and further contacts with other Remnant bands that are proving vital intelligence as well."  
  
"Thank you, Mister President," Robert answered.  
  
"I'm sure you have questions about your new orders," Morgan said.  
  
"I imagined we would be kept with Ninth Fleet," Robert answered. "Or at least under Admiral Relini's command. _Aurora_ might not be a match for a dreadnought, but we can fight pretty much every other Reich warship we've seen so far. And we're able to evacuate thousands of colonists more than most ships our size."  
  
"All true," Maran conceded. "but that's not where we need you."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Effectively immediately, Captain Dale, you are being re-assigned," Morgan said. "We're pulling you and your crew off of the front."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With war raging in Universe S4W8, the Aurora is sent on a crucial diplomatic mission to win allies in the S5T3 (Star Trek) Universe.

Robert sat silently for a moment as he digested that news. He was disgusted to feel some relief upon hearing it. To be away from the soul-grinding mixture of battle terror and foreboding between desperate combats. To not have to worry about whether he was about to warp into a Nazi trap, or have their attack ships de-cloak and fire their shield-disrupting torpedoes at him. They'd be out of the war.  
  
And leaving hundreds, thousands, of other crews to suffer that in their stead.  
  
"Is there an issue with my performance?", Robert asked.  
  
It was clear that Davies would have answered "Yes", but Morgan shook his head. It was Maran who spoke. "No, Captain. You have performed as well as could be expected given the situation."  
  
"Then…"  
  
"Captain, you were never meant to simply be used for field duty in the Stellar Navy," Morgan said. "Your ship was intended to perform missions my office deems vital. Right now, we need you elsewhere, not here on the front."  
  
Robert considered that. He still didn't like it, but he could at least understand it and see it wasn't meant to be a punishment. "I understand, Mister President." He looked at Maran. "My new orders, then?"  
  
"I'm transferring one of the Alliance's best diplomats to _Aurora_ ," Morgan explained. "You'll be supporting him in a crucial series of negotiations."  
  
Robert nodded and swallowed. "So… I'm going to be working with diplomats then," He asked.  
  
"Yes," Morgan said. "It's a vital mission, Captain. The outcome of this war depends on these talks."  
  
Robert realized what he meant. "This is to gain allies, then?"  
  
"It is." Morgan looked at his admirals, who nodded. "I'm not going to lie to you, Captain. It looks bad. We'd only just begun to ramp up fleet production, and if I push the members of the Alliance too far…. we might have some of them withdraw."  
  
"Not everybody thinks we should be fighting this war," Davies pointed out.  
  
"I understand the political situation might be… problematic, sir," Robert agreed. "So you can't mobilize fully for this war."  
  
"Not yet," Morgan said. "Because as things stand, some member states of the Alliance are arguing for us to withdraw from S4W8 instead of waging a major interstellar war to stay."  
  
"But that won't work. If the Reich finds the Darglan facility here…."  
  
"I know, Captain, I know," Morgan answered. He barely glanced toward Davies, who kept a hard look on his face. "But not everyone believes that is worth the price of a war. They don't think the risk is too great. So I have to be careful about how much I push the other states. And that means we need allies."  
  
Robert nodded. "And you want me to help win them over to our side."  
  
"Yes. You'll be supporting our negotiator."  
  
"Where do I pick him up?", Robet asked.  
  
"He's already here." Morgan hit a key. "Send him in."  
  
The door to the side entrance opened. Robert turned in time to see the figure walk in, wearing a purple robe with blue trim over a white vest and trousers. He realized he recognized the figure. " _Mastrash_ Ledosh." He nodded and grinned. "It's good to see you again, sir."  
  
"A sentiment I agree with, Captain Dale." Ledosh nodded. He looked to the President. "It will be my honor, President Morgan, to work beside Captain Dale on your behalf and that of the Alliance."  
  
Robert glanced over in time to see Davies' look turn into an open scowl of hostility. He clearly thought very little of this appointment.  
  
Robert, however, thought far better. This was Meridina's mentor. One of the leaders of her Order of Life Force Knights, trained in the same powers as she was, and a capable diplomat who had joined the Gersallian negotiators that helped write the Alliance charter and constitution. He was, arguably, one of the key figures in the foundation of the Alliance. "I'm looking forward to working with you again, _Mastrash_ ," Robert said. "So, where are we going?"  
  
"We're still pursuing diplomatic endeavors on multiple fronts," Morgan explained. "But for now, we have a crucial summit for you to join."  
  
"Where?"  
  
"Sol System. Universe S5T3."  
  
Robert blinked. "You're looking to negotiate with… but they'll never…"  
  
"Yes," was the answer. "And we will be negotiating with the purpose of winning the support of the Federation and Klingon Empire." Ledosh had some optimism in his voice. "The Light be willing, we may even win their full alliance and their entry into the war with the Third Reich."  
  
Robert sat in stunned silence. "You… really think we could get the Federation to join the war? That doesn't sound like them. They follow their Prime Directive pretty closely."  
  
"I have studied their history," Ledosh noted. "So I am familiar with their General Order #1 and how it was shaped by events like the issue of the Valakians and Menk. I agree that the Federation is very stringent in its application of the Prime Directive. However, it is my hope to show them that, their penchant for non-intervention aside, the potential of the Third Reich to gain interuniversal technology makes their participation vital."  
  
Robert put it all together. "And since we're the ones who've determined that there's a Facility near their space, we're perfect for demonstrating those facts." Another realization came. "But, for the Federation and Klingons to join the war…"  
  
"....they would need IU drives, yes," Morgan said. "The Council is willing to accept that as a term."  
  
"You're… you're talking about…"  
  
"....giving away our monopoly on the technology, yes," Davies answered. "Unfortunately, Captain Dale, we have a war to win now. Prices must be paid. By all of us."  
  
Robert processed that. He realized this was not the only group of governments that the offer may be given to. It had been presumed that the Alliance would only share IU tech in very special circumstances. Now… they'd be giving it to other powers in exchange for support in the war. Powers that could potentially be at odds with them one day.  
  
No wonder Davies was so upset with him.  
  
"I will transfer to your ship shortly," Ledosh said. "I hope to depart for the Federation capital by the end of the day."  
  
"Yes," Robert said. "Of course." He looked to Morgan. "Is there anything else, sir?"  
  
"Nothing, Captain Dale," Morgan said. "You're dismissed. Good luck and Godspeed."  
  
Robert nodded and left with Ledosh. Once they were out of the door Ledosh bowed his head. "Allow me to get my things."  
  
"Of course," Robert answered.  
  
  
  
  
Julia had left Jarod in control of the bridge while she went to her office to look over the repair paperwork. As always, Scotty had filed his in record time, and Leo had filed the medical reports on their casualties. Five of the wounded had debilitating injuries that would end their service. Julia felt a twist in her gut at the names; three of them were denizens of New Liberty.  
  
She knew she was supposed to feel equally bad for all crew members, but there was an extra hurt for those from New Liberty. They were, after all, "her people". She had personally helped in the rescue of so many of them over the years. To know that they had lost some of those people, whether to death or debilitating injury, meant more strangers on the _Aurora_. "The day's going to come," she murmured to herself, thinking of what it would be like when there were no New Liberty-ers left on the crew.  
  
" _IU radio transmission for you, Commander,_ " Jarod said over the intercom. " _It's Commander Carrey._ "  
  
Julia felt some pleasure at that. "Relay it to my office." She looked at her screen and grinned wearily when Zack's smiling face appeared on the screen. "Hey Zack. How are you doing?'  
  
" _We're hanging in there,_ " he answered. " _Tom's stopped flinching whenever he sees a Marine from_ Galactica _now._ "  
  
"That's good to hear," she said "No Cylons, I hope?"  
  
" _No, the toasters are keeping their distance. We gave them a good bloody nose at Caprica. I think they might just back off until we get to safety, but they're evil religious robots, so who knows what they're thinking?_ " Zack chuckled and shook his head. " _Nah, nothing wrong out here, it's you guys I'm worried about. I've heard about what happened._ "  
  
"Oh, yeah," she answered. "Yeah, it's been rough."  
  
" _I hear from Admiral Maran that our support convoy might be delayed another week_ ," he said. " _And there won't be a permanent escort beyond_ Koenig."  
  
"Given how many ships we're losing, I'm afraid it's not avoidable," Julia answered sadly. "Zack… it's a good thing you're out there. It's been horrible here. The Nazis have killed hundreds of thousands of alien colonists so far."  
  
" _Dammit_ ," he answered. A bust of static went through the line. " _And it looks like Tom's adjustment to our comm systems is going a bit wacky. We really could use_ Aurora _for long range comms, I'm afraid our array has issues maintaining real-time connections._."  
  
"I know. But duty is duty. And speaking of that, Robert should be back from meeting the President soon."  
  
" _Well, hopefully you all have a safer mission coming_ ," Zack answered. " _It's selfish of me to admit it, but I'd sleep better knowing you were off the front. Tell Rob I said hello, right? And give him a big hug. I'm sure he's beating himself up over this._ "  
  
"I had to pull the whip away to stop him from self-flagellating," Julia answered. "Verbally, anyway."  
  
" _Yeah. And mind giving Cat a hug too? From me and Tom. Oh, and Starbuck wanted me to tell Cat 'hello' for her too._ "  
  
"I'll pass that along," Julia said, allowing herself to smile widely for the first time in a couple of weeks. "I hope you make it safely to Alliance space soon, Zack."  
  
" _So do we. I'll pass on word to Roslin and Adama about the convoy delays. They'll understand._ "  
  
"Thankfully."  
  
" _Alright. I've got a meeting with Adama coming up soon, I've got to vamoose. I'll call again when I can. Carrey out._ " Zack's face disappeared, replaced by the torch insignia of the Allied Systems.  
  
 _It's good to see him smiling again_ , Julia thought. She started to get back to work. At least until Robert called for her to come to the command staff's conference room.  
  
  
  
  
"So that's it?", Jarod asked, the staff now meeting in the conference room. "We're off the front?:  
  
Robert nodded. "We're doing diplomatic detail now."  
  
"Why do I get the feeling Davies is behind this?", Angel muttered bitterly.  
  
"I get the feeling he'd still rather have us cashiered and the _Aurora_ turned over to a 'proper' crew," Robert answered. "No, this is President Morgan."  
  
"I am rather pleased to hear it is _Mastrash_ Ledosh who will handle the diplomacy," Meridina noted. "He is an excellent choice."  
  
"Yeah." Robert nodded.  
  
"I'm just glad to be getting out of the war," Leo admitted. "I'm tired of having to put people back together." The look on his face belied the half-lie he'd just told; his real reason evidently had more to do with when he could put people back together, not the act of doing it.  
  
"That's why it's so important that this mission succeed," Robert said. "The Alliance needs help. Any kind of help. Getting the Federation and Klingons to give us at least material support would go a long way toward that."  
  
"So we're basically the British asking for Lend-Lease, right?", Cat inquired.  
  
"That could be how it goes," Robert said. "But we'll take what we can."  
  
"Well, good to know they still have some confidence in us," Julia observed. "Is there anything else?"  
  
"Nothing at the moment."  
  
"We still don't have a replacement for _Koenig_?", Jarod asked.  
  
"Apparently not," Robert answered. "We need every ship we can get at the front, so it makes sense we don't get a replacement when leaving the front. He checked the time. " _Mastrash_ Ledosh should be ready now. Time to head out to the bridge."  
  
  
  
  
Ledosh arrived on the bridge within a minute of everyone getting back into places. "I am ready to depart, Captain," he said. "If you lock your jump drive on to the vessel _Pillar of Light_ , it will bring you to the Sol System of S5T3."  
  
"This mission's been in planning for a while then, if they're already at the Federation's Earth," Robert said. The Alliance did have an embassy on Earth, but for obvious reasons it did not maintain anything that a jump drive could lock onto. No tethering probes, no vessels on station with jump drives capable of being locked onto. A concession, and an honest one, to Federation security.  
  
"Yes," Ledosh said. "But it has taken time to get the meeting set up. They will be ready shortly."  
  
"Alright then. Jarod, go ahead and set us to Universe S5T3. Get _Pillar of Light_ 's drive code out of the database and lock on."  
  
"Doing so now," he answered. After several seconds he hit a key and nodded. "Lock confirmed. Ready to generate jump point."  
  
"Jump."  
  
The _Aurora_ generated a jump point that tore through the very fabric of reality between universes. The ship accelerated through and decelerated as it exited.  
  
They didn't arrive in orbit of Earth but rather Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn. A boxy brown vessel was ahead of them. Its warp nacelles, angled downward, had a gold coloring to them, and the brown and yellow coloring was distinctly Gersallian starship design aesthetic, particularly the blue highlights. It contrasted pleasurably with the saucer-and-drive hull distinction of the Federation starship, an _Ambassador_ -class if Robert remembered correctly, that was beside it. A Klingon attack cruiser was nearby in a different orbital plane. A single hulled ship with the nacelles stretching outward and downward from the rear, it looked distinctly predatory; befitting the Klingons, certainly.  
  
"So, we're not having these talks planetside?", Robert asked.  
  
Ledosh shook his head. "Due to the… sensitive nature of some of the subjects in question, Captain, we will be hosting them on this ship, and away from normal travel lanes in the solar system. I believe you have the appropriate facilities?"  
  
Robert nodded. "We do. And Hargert is an excellent choice for catering."  
  
"Then it is settled. I will return to my quarters and inform the delegates that we will be ready in three standard hours. I hope that is sufficient time to prepare the proper facilities, I would very much like to get talks commenced before the day is out."  
  
Robert looked to Julia, who nodded. "I'll get everything set up in Conference Room 1," she said before departing the bridge.  
  
"Then I shall go make the necessary notifications and meditate for the time being," Ledosh said. "I will request you alert me to the arrival of the delegates, Captain."  
  
"Of course," Robert replied. "Do we know who the delegates will be, yet?"  
  
Ledosh nodded. "The Klingon delegation is being led by a member of the High Council. Councilor Kurn. As for the Federation delegation, Councillors T'Latrek and Bera chim Gleer will be leading their delegation with the assistance of Exterior Vice-Secretary Tanno. I was also informed that Starfleet has appointed an advisor to the Federation team as well, who will be coming with his staff."  
  
"Oh?" Robert was curious at that. "Who?"  
  
  
  
  
Two hours later, Robert was patiently waiting at Transporter Station 3. "The Federation vessel _Excalibur_ has transmitted that it is ready to send over its first delegate," the Gersallian woman at the station told him.  
  
"Beam him over," Robert answered.  
  
A column of white light appeared on the pad and coalesced into a familiar human figure. "Permission to come aboard, Captain?", the man asked in that proper English accent of his.  
  
"Permission granted," Robert said, allowing himself a small grin. "It's my pleasure to finally have you aboard the _Aurora_ , Captain Picard."  
  
Captain Jean-Luc Picard nodded and grinned in return. "And my pleasure to finally get to see this magnificent starship." He stepped down from the pad and looked back to it. "The transporter system feels a little different than what I'm used to."  
  
"The Darglan transporters don't use the matter-energy conversion process yours do," Robert replied. "It's something about subspace tunnelling of matter. You'd have to ask one of the engineers for specifics."  
  
"Perhaps I shall," Picard replied. He offered his hand and Robert took it. "I have a great many questions about this ship."  
  
Robert nodded. "And I can give you that tour, finally. If we have time." Robert grew somber. "I heard about the _Enterprise_. My condolences."  
  
"Thank you." Picard nodded solemnly. "But there are plenty more letters in the alphabet. Before long I suspect another _Enterprise_ will be announced."  
  
"And hopefully you'll be in command," Robert said.  
  
"Hopefully so, yes." Picard's expression turned not sour, but rather reserved. "Captain to Captain, Robert…." The switch to his first time meant they were switching to the informal as they stepped out into the corridor of the _Aurora_. Robert was leading him on to the Conference Room. "I thought it best to give you some forewarning."  
  
"Of?"  
  
"I'm aware of what your Alliance is seeking from these talks. You need to know, now, that the Federation cannot give you the assistance you will be requesting."  
  
Robert didn't frown. He'd expected they couldn't do everything that Morgan and Ledosh were hoping for. But he had been hoping for something, at least. "I'm not expecting the Federation to go to war on our behalf, Jean-Luc," he said. "Not even against literal Nazis."  
  
"It's not simply an inability to wage war, Robert," Picard answered. "With the lingering threat of the Romulans and the new Dominion threat from the Gamma Quadrant, the Federation cannot afford to get mired into another conflict. Not even with just material aid."  
  
Robert remained silent at first. Finding the door to the Conference Room he entered. Tables and chairs had been set up for the three negotiating powers, with name plates already arranged. He was to be seated with Ledosh, as was Julia; the others of his crew were obviously meant to sit nearby as potential witnesses. In the area between the tables the main holo-projector was ready and now that they were in private, he felt he could speak more freely. "Okay, so no weapons. But certainly you can do something."  
  
"I'm sorry. But I don't see that happening," Picard admitted. "The Federation is stretched too thinly. Even recovering from the Borg… we have too many other commitments to give anything meaningful."  
  
That was not what Robert wanted to hear. "Jean-Luc, please. You haven't seen the refugees. The people who went out to start a new life and were driven from their homes with barely the clothes on their backs. And they're the lucky ones."  
  
"I understand the scope may be horrible, but it's a matter of…"  
  
Robert stopped and turned to him. "You didn't _see them_. You haven't seen the Nazis literally wipe a colony of tens of thousands of beings off the face of a planet! _I have!_ And you're telling me you can't even spare the materials to resettle the people who escaped those massacres?!"  
  
Picard looked at him quietly for a moment. Their eyes met. "You couldn't have saved them," Picard said. "I'm sorry, Robert. I'm sure you tried your best. But you can't save everyone."  
  
For a moment Robert simply stared at him. "I guess I wasn't hiding it very well," he finally said.  
  
"I'm afraid not," Picard replied. "And I suggest hiding it better when you deal with the delegates. Otherwise these negotiations may very well turn out that way."  
  
Robert couldn't say anything for a moment. He was thinking about what was being said. And finally he felt a smile creep up on his face. "You want to help us," he said.  
  
Picard's expression softened. "I believe it is in the best interests of the Federation to do so, yes. Not to mention that it is ethically paramount to resist the violent and barbaric regime your Alliance has found itself in conflict with. Especially if there is any chance such a regime might just acquire your interuniversal technology."  
  
"Right." Robert nodded. "Well, there's a chance."  
  
"Surely you put effective security to prevent their salvaging."  
  
"Multiple redundancies and everything. Once in a while even our own crews trigger them and can lose a drive," Robert answered. "We can't keep this technology hidden from others forever, I mean eventually someone who's worked on them or knows them could sell enough information to give away the secret. But in the short-term, we don't have to worry about salvage."  
  
"Then why do you say there's a chance?"  
  
Robert thought on it for a moment. On whether to tell Picard or not. He decided to start with a question. "You told me to call you Jean-Luc in private."  
  
"I did."  
  
"Why?" Robert asked. "You're a captain with decades of experience; i'm young enough that you were captain of a starship before I was born. Why do I get the first name basis with you?"  
  
Picard didn't answer at first. He walked over to the chair he would be sitting in and considered the nameplate assigned to him. "Starfleet is not like other organizations with a military background," he began. "Every species, every nation, has its own ideas of military discipline, of appropriate behavior. We could never have accommodated them all, so we have forged our own approach."  
  
At that Robert nodded. The Stellar Navy had much of the same issue. Even their name was sometimes considered too Humanocentric; the Dorei and Gersallians had lobbied for the term "Stellar Fleet" heavily before being outvoted.  
  
"This process began when it was just the Earth Starfleet. And for two hundred years, the Federation has worked to find the best to captain starships," Picard continued. "It's been something we've been working on since Captain Jonathan Archer took the first _Enterprise_ out to explore the Alpha Quadrant. The most we have learned is that finding those best qualified to command starships is an art more than a science. There's only so much you can train someone to take on that.." He seemed to be considering a word. "..awesome responsibility," he finished, and Robert knew he was using the word "awesome" in a literal sense, not the vernacular that Tom or Zack might have. "In the end, starship captains are as likely to be born as they are to be trained. They require certain traits, certain ways of thinking, to succeed in the captain's chair. And when you find someone with those characteristics in one of those chairs, then there is no room for issues of seniority or age. A good starship captain is worth encouraging, no matter how young or untrained they might be."  
  
Robert remained quiet as he thought about that. "I understand what you're saying."  
  
"I've heard about an incident with the Reich two months ago," Picard continued. "With your ship in the middle of it."  
  
"33LA," Robert replied. "We were… tracking down the possible location of a Darglan facility."  
  
"The Darglan." Picard recalled the name. "The alien species that developed the interuniversal drive."  
  
"Right. Caterina had designed a program to sort through recorded sensor logs across the fleet, looking for the signs of a Darglan dimensionally-transcendental field in operation. She found one that was in the system In system 33LA. So we got permission to investigate with the _Koenig…._ "  
  
Robert explained everything that happened. It didn't take long. As he did, Picard looked on in understanding. And when he was done, he nodded. "I see. And you think this incident fueled the war?'  
  
"There's no way they did it over what happened to the _Eichmann_ ," Robert explained. "They had to have been planning on that attack for months, sneaking ships into the nebula, arranging means to communicate through the interference inside of it. 33LA had to have been the reason."  
  
"Or perhaps they always planned to attack," Picard pointed out.  
  
"Maybe." Robert shook his head. "But that's your answer. That's why we think there's a chance they could get IU drives. There's a Darglan Facility right outside their space. And we can't even get to it, not without drawing their attention right to it. And…" Robert closed his eyes. "...I can't stop thinking of all the people dying in this war, and that the choice I made at 33LA might be why."  
  
At that Picard nodded. "Sometimes, we make the wrong decision," the older man said. "It can't be avoided. The important thing is to learn from it. To accept the error and move on."  
  
"Hard to move on if I'm the one who started the war. I'm the one who didn't trust my people and who put them in harm's way when I knew there was something wrong."  
  
Picard shook his head. "You can't think like that. Besides, I would have done the same thing you did."  
  
Robert looked at Picard. "What?"  
  
"I would have sent Commander Carrey and his ship out," Picard said.  
  
"You would have?"  
  
"In those circumstances, yes." Picard nodded. "The stakes were too high, the timing too critical. Such technology cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of a society like the Third Reich. You were right to send Commander Carrey on that mission regardless of the security risks discovered. Even if it had cost you the _Koenig_ , it would have still been the right decision."  
  
Robert remained quiet at that. It was one thing for Julia to say it. She hated him being mopey. But Picard? With all of that experience? The same man who had once lectured him on the need to consider the consequences of his actions?  
  
"And Draynal?", Robert asked.  
  
"What about him?" Picard shook his head. "The hard part about dealing with this Changeling threat is that they can so easily replace any of us. By the time you had any solid evidence about Draynal or idea that the Changeling had fully compromised your systems, the _Koenig_ had already departed."  
  
"I could have warned Zack."  
  
"About what? A possibility about an officer with an otherwise fine record? With no proof beyond vague feelings from possible psychic sources? That's not something people ordinarily do, Robert. It would undermine the fundamental trust that must exist between officers serving together." Picard looked intently at him. "Yes, it is true that your decision had a negative consequence that another choice might not have provided. But that is with hindsight. A good captain considers all options, but doesn't shy away from a necessary choice simply because they're not sure of what could happen. Be aware of the possible consequences. Don't let them blind you to the necessities of the moment."  
  
Before Robert could reply to that, there was a tone over his multidevice. He pressed it. "Dale here."  
  
Julia spoke up on the other end. " _We just received a signal from the_ Mok'ba _. Councillor Kurn is ready to beam aboard._ "  
  
"What about the Federation team?"  
  
" _Captain Korsmo already signaled that Councillors T'Latrek and Gleer will beam over at the planned three hour mark with Captain Picard's staff._ "  
  
"What about the Vice-Secretary?"  
  
" _Apparently he has transporter phobia_ ," Julia explained. " _He's requesting permission to bring a shuttle over._ "  
  
Robert looked to Picard, who shook his head. "The Exterior Vice-Secretary is an eccentric Bolian, a political scientist nominated to the post," Picard said. "I see no harm."  
  
"Clear him for the main shuttle bay," Robert said into his multidevice.  
  
" _Doing so now. Do you want me to inform_ Mastrash _Ledosh of Kurn's impending arrival?_ "  
  
"I'll do it," Robert said. "Does Hargert have the meal ready?"  
  
" _Most of it. Apparently there are certain… elements of Klingon cuisine that proved troublesome._ "  
  
Robert laughed at that. "Well, hopefully they'll understand. Have Meridina and Angel meet Kurn at Transporter Station 2 and escort him to Conference 1. I'll go rouse Ledosh. Dale out."  
  
"I'll wait here for the others to arrive," Picard said when Robert lowered his arm. "And I hope you consider what I've said. I've seen promising careers fail to meet their potential because a captain loses confidence in their decisions."  
  
Robert nodded. "It's something to think about. Thank you, Jean-Luc."  
  
"You're welcome, Robert."  
  
  
  
  
Robert had attended diplomatic meetings before, so that part was nothing new to him.  
  
What was new was having the other side more interested in arguing against each other than debating the points proposed by his side.  
  
"Again, Councillor Gleer, your logic fails," T'Latrek said. The older Vulcan woman was one of the Federation's elder statespersons; the packet Robert had read on her as the meeting came into focus reminded him of just how different some species were. She was older than his grandparents would have been if they were still alive and had served on the Federation Council for over seventy years. She had been one of the staff members of the Federation president who negotiated the Khitomer Accords. And for Robert, it didn't bode well that she was arguing against Federation assistance for much of the same grounds Picard had cited in speaking to him.  
  
Bera chim Gleer scowled at the Councillor at the opposite end of his table. Aides flanked him, compared to just the one young Vulcan woman beside T'Latrek, with Picard and the Bolian Tanno in the middle. "This is a matter of the security of the Federation," Gleer retorted. "How is that not logical?"  
  
"It presumes facts that are not in evidence," T'Latrek said. "It presumes a threat where none has been made evident."  
  
At that, _Mastrash_ Ledosh stood. "Madame Councillor, I had my own reservations about the first reports on the Reich's characteristics, but I found those reservations to be in error. I plead with you not to make the same error."  
  
T'Latrek turned and faced Ledosh. "Emissary Ledosh, you are in error to believe I am not unaware of the extremes of the Nazi Reich. I have studied Human history in my own time and am well aware of the origins of your enemy and the threat they would pose. But I do not agree with your assessment of imminent danger. We have only your word that there is a facility of the Darglan that might provide them with the interuniversal drive technology."  
  
"We have the data, Madame Councillor," Robert protested. "We've made it available to you."  
  
T'Latrek's eyes turned to him. She appraised him with cool detachment. "Captain Dale, your reliability as the source of this information is sadly suspect."  
  
"I beg your pardon?", Robert asked.  
  
"You have a known history of interference in the affairs of other societies that did not match your standards," T'Latrek remarked. "According to your own government, you have already instigated hostilities with an alien species known as the Goa'uld without any provocation."  
  
"Now just a minute." Leo rose from his place in the seating area. Cat and Jarod were beside him; in the next row over Picard's people - Riker, Data, Worf, and Troi - were watching with interest. "The Goa'uld enslaved an innocent woman and violated her to conceive a child. All we did was protect her and her village."  
  
T'Latrek raised an eyebrow but did not speak. Gleer did, however, but not to score a point against his rival. "Captain Dale, your crew has no standing to speak unless called upon by a delegation. I insist you restrain them or I will move for their expulsion from the proceedings."  
  
Robert sighed and looked to Leo, who was glowering right back at the Tellarite. "He's right, Leo. I'm sorry, but these things have protocols."  
  
Leo looked to Robert and let out a grunt of frustration before sitting down.  
  
Before Robert or anyone could then address T'Latrek's earlier point as Leo had tried, there was a loud smack of a fist on a table. Kurn stood in his seat. "Enough of this petty squabbling," he growled. "The Klingon Empire is not afraid of battle. But we are not hirelings to be paid like a pack of Ferengi, nor we are war targs to be unleashed at your whim." Kurn fixed his gaze on Ledosh and Robert. "The High Council is willing to join the Alliance in battle against these speciest _to'baH_ Humans. But the Klingon Empire will require the Alliance to share with us the drives we will require to send our ships and warriors into the battle."  
  
Ledosh nodded. "My government is aware of the likely price of your participation, Councillor Kurn. I am authorized to negotiate the terms."  
  
Gleer let out a squealing hiss of frustration. "I protest! The Alliance giving the drive technology to just one power will destabilize the entire Alpha Quadrant! If the Klingon Empire receives this technology, so must the Federation."  
  
Kurn smiled a toothy smile at his official allies in the talks. "If the Federation wishes to join its allies in gaining the spoils, I hope it is prepared to join in the battle to win them."  
  
T'Latrek shook her head. "The Federation does not involve itself in the affairs of others. The Prime Directive…"  
  
"...is not a suicide pact," Gleer growled. "If the security of the Federation requires it, we should…"  
  
Before their discussion could continue, there was a tone from the ship PA system. " _Bridge to Captain Dale,_ " Julia said.  
  
Gleer glared murder at their table for the interruption. Robert restrained the sigh that started to form in his throat and keyed his multidevice to answer. "Dale here."  
  
" _Captain, we have a shuttle approaching and demanding docking clearance. Sir, the shuttle, it's… Romulan._ "  
  
Kurn snarled at that. Robert looked to Ledosh with concern, and the _Mastrash_ for once seemed genuinely surprised.  
  
T'Latrek was not. "The only Romulan shuttle that is kept in Sol system belongs to Ambassador tr'Lhaer."  
  
"The Romulan ambassador to the Federation?", Robert asked. "But how did he know about this meeting?"  
  
"An intriguing question, but one must never underestimate the ability of the Romulans to gather information," T'Latrek said. "I would request you grant the docking clearance. I suspect that he has come to insist on Romulan participation in these talks. Failure to accommodate him could prove to have severe consequences in the near-future."  
  
 _In other words, the Romulans might get really nasty if they think we're shutting them out of the talks._ Robert looked to Ledosh, who nodded assent to the suggestion. "Commander, send them to the main shuttle bay. Have security standing by to escort the Ambassador to Conference 1."  
  
" _Doing so now._ "  
  
Conversation quieted until the Romulan ambassador arrived. He was wearing a dull brown and gray suit with the bowl cut that seemed typical of Romulans, male and female. An aide flanked him and Meridina was standing just behind him, quiet and introspective. A table was moved up to join the others and the Romulan took his seat there. "How interesting," he said.  
  
"Welcome, Ambassador tr'Lhaer," Ledosh said politely.  
  
"My thanks. I had presumed the lack of an invitation was merely a bureaucratic oversight by the Alliance government. Wars have such a nasty way of causing disruption in the operations of a state." Tr'Lhaer folded his hands together. "But I get the idea I was never to be invited at all."  
  
"And we would have been the better for it," Kurn growled.  
  
That won him a moment of condescending amusement before tr'Lhaer nodded to T'Latrek. "Madame Councillor."  
  
"Ambassador."  
  
"We may not have diplomatic relations with the Alliance, and we have only limited interest in their affairs, but it is not hard to imagine the Alliance's purpose here." Tr'Lhaer looked now to Robert and Ledosh. "You have provoked an enemy stronger than you had anticipated, Captain Dale. Now the Alliance you represent is losing the war you caused. It cannot demand further sacrifice from its own people lest they simply abandon it. So you have come to us with pretty gifts so we will shed our blood for you."  
  
"We came, Mister Ambassador, because the Nazi Empire is a threat to us all," Robert retorted. "If they get IU drive technology…"  
  
"Your point, such as it is, has been made, Captain." Tr'Lhaer looked to Ledosh. "So this is your strategy. Play up the threat of this empire acquiring the technology to convince other states to join the war caused by your own foolishness. The Romulan Empire has no interest in supporting such foolish behavior, regardless of other considerations. Although that too must be addressed."  
  
"Meaning, Ambassador?" Ledosh asked with angelic patience.  
  
"Meaning that the Romulan Empire cannot and will not tolerate its rivals gaining access to your technology." Tr'Lhaer folded his hands together on the table. "We will not dictate to whom you can devote your forces, of course, or if you will provide aid or sell resources to the Alliance. But if either the Federation or the Klingon Empire is provided the interuniversal drive technology without Romulus being granted its use as well, the Romulan Star Empire will consider it an act of war. And we will declare war on both parties of such an exchange."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With war raging in Universe S4W8, the Aurora is sent on a crucial diplomatic mission to win allies in the S5T3 (Star Trek) Universe.

The angry shouts of Kurn and Councillor Gleer were still ringing in Robert's ears when the meeting broke up unsuccessfully. Tr'Lhaer was returning to his shuttle, already promising to return the next day to "observe", and the Federation delegation was returning to the _Excalibur_ (Tanno by his shuttle of course). So far the unobtrusive Federation diplomatic bureaucrat was the only one who had not irritated Robet in some way at the meeting. Not counting Picard anyway.  
  
Robert escorted Ledosh back to his stateroom. "It would appear these negotiations will be more complicated than believed," Ledosh remarked stoically as they went down the corridor.  
  
"Why did we leave the Romulans out?", Robert asked. "I mean, it was pretty obvious they'd get paranoid and suspicious if we did that."  
  
"It was believed that they would ask for too much," Ledosh said. "And that they would be unwilling to gamble upon a war on two fronts."  
  
"They could be bluffing," Robert agreed. "But can we risk it?"  
  
"I will have to inform President Morgan and seek instruction. Until then I will endeavor to get what arrangements we can."  
  
"I admit getting Klingons into the fight would be especially useful," Robert said. "And the Federation's technological abilities would help us locate the Facility even without the full coordinates. But I don't think we'll do well if the Romulans start a war over it."  
  
"Indeed not." They arrived at the door to Ledosh' stateroom. The Gersallian stepped in and looked back. "On another matter, I sense you are troubled?"  
  
Robert replied with a sheepish grin. "I suppose I can't hide anything from you ' _swevyra_ ' types. Yeah, I am. The war and… well, my dreams."  
  
"Dreams?"  
  
"Nightmares, really. Not like normal ones. Meridina thinks my 'life force' or however you term it might be connecting to the wider universe and telling me things that might or even will happen."  
  
Ledosh considered that. "That would signify quite a special connection to the universe, Captain. I suggest you consider the possibility seriously."  
  
"I am, _Mastrash_ ," Robert replied. He sighed. "And that's what scares me."  
  
"Fear can cloud one's vision of the future," Ledosh observed. "Perhaps you should focus on more positive emotions. Consider brighter paths for your future."  
  
Robert couldn't hide his skepticism. "So I can just make myself think of happy endings and I'll get those visions instead? If these are such visions?"  
  
"Not necessarily," Ledosh conceded. "The thing to keep in mind is that one's emotional state can affect how one's life energy interacts with the universe. Light with light, Dark with dark. If you listen to your fears, your life energy will reflect that, and your connection will focus on those fears and the outcomes that cause them. Doing so the opposite ways can lead to possible endings you will find more palatable. Not that either need come to pass. This is about possible futures, not what will happen."  
  
"I see." Robert considered that idea. It seemed fairly reasonable. _As much as talking about your life force giving you peeks at the future can be reasonable, anyway._  
  
With that conversation evidently over, Ledosh asked, "You are hosting Captain Picard's staff in the morning, yes?"  
  
"For a tour of the ship."  
  
"Hopefully that will provide some relief from your sufferings as of late," Ledosh noted. "Sleep well, Captain. I hope you find that focusing on the positive side of life will make the futures you foresee more bearable."  
  
  
  
  
Caterina stepped out of her shower and finished wrapping the towel around herself. Her quarters' climate control immediately began warming the temperature slightly, to keep her from feeling cold as she finished drying off, while Cat brought up the sensor logs for the day since she'd spent so much of it at the diplomatic meeting. They hadn't met many Klingons, and never any Romulans, so it was a chance for some unique scanning.  
  
She read over the results of the scans and felt her brow furrow. Something was off. She tapped a key and called the bridge. " _Lieutenant Luneri here_ ," was the reply.  
  
"This is Caterina. Can you make sure I get relayed all scans of the incoming Romulan shuttle tomorrow? There may be something wrong."  
  
" _Do you want me to inform someone?_ "  
  
"I'll talk to the others myself. But I need to see this. Please?"  
  
" _I'll make sure the note is passed on to Science, Lieutenant. Good night._ "  
  
Caterina yawned on cue. "Good night." With her skin now mostly dry she swapped into her Geek Princess pajamas and slid into bed for a night of sleep.  
  
  
  
Angel had helped Robert with the "positive" outlook part of what Ledosh had said to him. They hadn't shared a night of passion as they might have preferred, but the kissing and embracing and falling asleep in one another's arms had at least helped his disposition.  
  
And now he was dreaming again. And it was one of those dreams. That he was sure of.  
  
At first it had been the same as before. Dark ships trying to slice _Aurora_ into ribbons. Julia being dragged across a metal floor by a couple of men in SS garb with Fassbinder following behind. The girl in the red and gold clothing crying for help as the power surging from her consumed her until her eyes seemed to disappear into a glow of intense white light.  
  
 _No_ , he thought. Robert focused on Ledosh's words. _No fear. The future has to hold more than things to be afraid of._  
  
"Hey Rob." He turned and faced Zack. "Good to be home." Robert looked around and saw that they were in the Lookout.  
  
"Three cheers for the _Koenig_!", Locarno cried out, and everyone started cheering.  
  
Before Robert could join in, things were changing again. He was in a dress uniform. President Morgan stepped up and handed him a medal.  
  
There was another girl a moment later. Red-haired, light-skinned, green eyes and with a scarred cheek, smiling as she waved at him from the airlock. "Please visit!", she called out.  
  
The dreams changed abruptly again. This time he was in the conference room. The other delegates were there. Shouts were being made, accusations, threats of war. Tr'Lhaer glared at him. "This was your fault! It will be war!", the ambassador screamed.  
  
Robert wondered what he meant, but before he could inquire further, there was a rumble beneath his feet. Energy erupted from the nearest wall and they were all consumed.  
  
At that point he woke up with more of a start. As he had been laying his head across Angel's shoulder, his abrupt movement woke her up as well. "A nightmare?", she asked sleepily.  
  
"Something… maybe both." Robert checked the time. 0400. Still two and a half hours for sleep. He leaned over and kissed Angel on the lips. "Go back to sleep. I intend to."  
  
"Mmhmm…" Angel turned around and presented her back to him. Her right arm was now dangling over her belly and off the bed.  
  
Robert put his right arm on her's, let their fingers interlace, and kissed her on the back of the neck before he settled back into sleep.  
  
  
  
  
Picard and the rest of his officers returned at 0715 as scheduled, at least two hours ahead of the other delegates. Robert was with Julia, Jarod, Meridina, and Caterina to meet them. Caterina, he couldn't help but note, seemed particularly distracted.  
  
Their first stop was the Lookout, where Hargert's staff had prepared breakfast. As they ate small talk began to pick up. "You're short a few people," Julia said to Picard and Riker.  
  
"Yes. Mister La Forge is attending an engineering symposium at Antares," Picard replied. "They are looking into methods to prevent warp core destabilization like the effect that cost us the _Enterprise_."  
  
"Tom would grumble about anti-matter blowing up if you looked at it the wrong way," Jarod noted with a grin. "And then encourage Starfleet to switch to naqia reactors."  
  
"I am curious." Data looked up from his own plate. That he was eating was a surprise, but he had made it clear it was for the social benefits only. "Where are Lieutenant Barnes and Commander Carrey? I found the Lieutenant's tendency to use colorful language to be rather intriguing, particularly his creative uses of such vocabulary."  
  
Cat, despite her distracted look, giggled at that. Jarod and Julia exchanged bemused looks. "The _Koenig_ is on special assignment in N2S7." Robert looked up from his meal of pancakes and a breakfast ham steak. "They're escorting toward Alliance space a convoy of refugees from what may be the only Human population left that is indigenous to that universe."  
  
"I see. An important mission, then." Picard nodded. "I hope they are doing well."  
  
"They are from the last time I talked to Zack," Julia said. "The Colonial Fleet is still months away from our space, so it's going to be a while before we see them again."  
  
Caterina suppressed a shiver. Troi gave her a worried look.  
  
Jarod put his fork down. "And Doctor Crusher?"  
  
"Medical Conference on Bolarus," Riker said.  
  
"Right."  
  
"I can tell you have all gone through some traumatic experiences lately," Troi said. "The war especially."  
  
"We watched sixty thousand people get butchered the other day, Counselor Troi," Jarod pointed out. "It has an effect."  
  
There was only a momentary silence before Meridina and Troi both gave very concerned looks toward Worf. He thumped a fist on the table. "The Romulans have no right to dictate to us," he growled. "Your Alliance is fighting an honorable battle against a great evil. You deserve our assistance."  
  
"It's not surprising they're worried about what it'd be like if the Federation and Klingons had IU jump drive technology," Julia said. "It would guarantee their defeat in a war."  
  
"I do have a concern." Meridina looked up from her plate of eggs and soup. "How did Ambassador tr'Lhaer discover that these talks were taking place? The _Pillar of Light_ is officially here on a cultural exchange mission. Its purpose to facilitate the arrival of a ship with an envoy was not determined until a few days ago."  
  
"Maybe he had someone who noticed our ships gathering together for the meeting?', Caterina proposed.  
  
"But we're not near Earth." Troi shook her head. "At this range, could even a Romulan shuttle's sensors have picked us up?"  
  
"Going by what we know of their capabilities, it does not seem likely, Counselor," Data agreed. "Our proximity to Saturn and to Enceladus would have acted to obscure the incoming jump point of the _Aurora_ from all but the most attuned sensors. And detecting our ships in the mass shadow of Enceladus and the wider shadow of Saturn is highly unlikely."  
  
"So to find us," Julia began, "t'Lhaer had to know we were out here, he would have needed to know where to look."  
  
Robert looked at Meridina. "Meridina, are you suggesting the talks were leaked to tr'Lhaer?"  
  
"I have… concerns," she said. "There is another purpose at work here."  
  
Picard's expression turned grave. "It is not unexpected that the Romulans would want to prevent an alliance between our governments."  
  
"I do not think this is a mere gesture of diplomatic posturing," Meridina insisted.  
  
Caterina looked up. "That might explain it."  
  
Everyone looked toward her. "Explain what, Cat?", Julia asked.  
  
"We were getting some sort of reading from the Romulan shuttle yesterday," Cat said. "Technical Officer Kelani was at my post since I was at the meeting so I think he missed it, but I noticed it when I checked my logs last night."  
  
"What sort of reading was it?", Robert asked.  
  
"An energy signature of some sort," Cat said. "It's not consistent with the kind of power sources the Romulans use in their shuttles."  
  
"The Romulans use controlled quantum singularities to power their starships," Data explained.  
  
"I can tell you it wasn't that, even if they'd use those on shuttlecraft," Cat insisted. "It was something else. Very faint. I'll need to examine the shuttle closely to actually figure out what it was."  
  
"Unfortunately, Lieutenant, that shuttle is diplomatic territory protected by interstellar law and custom," Picard explained. "You cannot enter it without the ambassador's explicit permission. Which I doubt he will be forthcoming with."  
  
"Well…" Cat shook her head. "Maybe… maybe there's a way to get the scans I need without physically entering the shuttle?"  
  
"There may be a way," Data said. "If you can set up a subspace waveform detector of sufficient sensitivity and portability, it could be used to determine what sort of energy form is emanating from the Romulan shuttle by examination of the specific subspace effects that the energy form causes. This could be done without violating the ambassador's diplomatic protections."  
  
Cat's eyes widened. "Oh! Yes! Yes, that's it! I… we could put one together from some of the planetary surveying equipment."  
  
"I'll call Lucy and have her help to assemble it," Julia said. "But that doesn't tell us who told tr'Lhaer about the meeting."  
  
"Given the timing, it has to be someone with one of our delegations," Riker noted.  
  
"Could it be Kurn?", Caterina asked. "Because I've heard some Klingons still…."  
  
Worf was already turning his head to face her with a scowl. "No. That is not possible," he rumbled.  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Councillor Kurn is Mister Worf's younger brother," Picard explained. "They lost their parents to the Romulan attack on Khitomer over twenty years ago."  
  
"Oh. Sorry… Mister Worf, sorry." Cat put her hands together and looked a little sheepish. But she managed a grin anyway. "I'm sure it's great to get to see your brother here, then. To get to spend time together, doing… Klingon-y things that brothers do… I mean, whatever you and your brother like to do..." She stopped when noticing Worf was still not smiling.  
  
Troi chuckled at that and grinned at Worf, who seemed taken aback for a moment. Finally the scowl on his face softened. "Yes," Worf declared. "I do enjoy seeing my brother again." He cleared his throat and looked down the table. "I find it hard to believe that a Romulan agent could have gotten close to my brother."  
  
"Well, could the leak be in the Federation delegation?", Julia asked. "Or maybe even a crewmember of the _Pillar of Light_? They have to have been told something about why they came?"  
  
"They only knew they might be employed to ensure the quick commencement of diplomatic talks," Meridina said. "The intent was never given to them."  
  
"Still, maybe we should investigate both," Julia said. "Just to make sure."  
  
"Between the _Excalibur_ and the _Pillar of Light_ , it is possible that a trace of a transmission could have been picked up," Jarod observed. "In background radiation, or hidden in standard communications activity."  
  
"That is a strong possibility," Data agreed. "I would need to examine the sensor logs from both ships and examine all outgoing data packets to confirm."  
  
"Although he and I have often clashed, I believe I can get Captain Korsmo to provide the logs from _Excalibur_ ," Picard said.  
  
"I will speak with Captain Darmal." Meridina nodded. "I believe it will not be difficult to win his cooperation."  
  
"I'll show Data to Science Lab 1, then," Jarod said.  
  
"There may be questions, then," Picard said. "About why all of the technical experts that were arranged for our benefit are indisposed. If there is some sort of conspiracy going on here, I don't want to alert them to their possible discovery. That might provoke them into moving before we know what's going on."  
  
Robert considered that problem. With Tom Barnes a universe away, Lucy needed to build Caterina's scanner device with her, and Data and Jarod on analysis duty, that left mostly junior officers…. But not just them. He smiled at Picard. "I suppose it's a good thing that we've got an engineering legend on board," Robert said. "Scotty's word should carry even more weight."  
  
"A splendid idea," Picard agreed. He nodded to Data. "Mister Data, Mister Jarod, please proceed to investigate the sensor logs. I'll contact Commander Shelby and arrange for you to get _Excalibur_ 's readings."  
  
"And that leaves the rest of us to keep Kurn and tr'Lhaer from killing each other," Julia remarked drolly.  
  
"Or Gleer and T'Latrek," Robert added. "I think those two might just hate each other more."  
  
The two groups broke up the breakfast at that point to begin the rest of the day.  
  
  
  
  
When the sessions began again, there was some reaction to the change of technical experts present for the negotiators' help. T'Latrek actually went to the extent of bowing her head in respect to Scotty. "It is agreeable to see you are well, Commander Scott."  
  
"Thank ye, lass." Scotty took a close look at her. "I know ye. Ye were at Khitomer, one of President Ra-ghoratreii's aides."  
  
"Indeed, sir." T'Latrek turned her head to Ledosh. " _Mastrash_ Ledosh, given the clear obstacles to aid that the Romulan Empire has announced, is it not futile to indulge in any further discussions along this line? There is nothing that the Federation or the Klingon Empire are offering that would involve a trade of anything less than the same technology that the Romulan Ambassador is considering going to war over."  
  
"Unless, of course, you were to provide it to us as well," Tr'Lhaer said smoothly. "And the Romulan Empire would not be averse to providing some material compensation. We will not fight for you, however."  
  
Robert looked to Ledosh, who had a stoic diplomatic demeanor on his face little different than T'Latrek's. "An interesting proposal, Ambassador. I have yet to hear from my government on the issue of Romulan possession of the technology."  
  
"Perhaps they are not as desperate as the condition may seem." Tr'Lhaer shrugged. "Although there are other ways of gaining assistance than giving away such a vital means of technology. Financial compensations, materials..."  
  
"The Klingon Empire is not interested in any _financial_ arrangements." Kurn leaned forward in his chair. "It is either the drive or nothing."  
  
"Understandable, Councillor," Ledosh answered. "I hope to have an answer to the Romulan ambassador done by midnight." Ledosh picked up the digital pad before him. "While I await my instructions from the President, there are other considerations to be made…"  
  
  
  
  
Jarod and Data had split up the tasks relating to the incoming data. Data himself was surveying the sensor returns while Jarod was applying his own intellect to the outgoing data packets to see if there were any hidden elements. They worked quietly and rapidly for some time.  
  
The doors to the Science Lab eventually opened. Riker entered and stood over the area between them to see what they were working on. "The Captain wanted to know your progress," Riker said.  
  
"I have completed approximately sixty percent of the sensor logs from the _Excalibur_ ," Data confirmed. "And then I will commence reading the results from _Pillar of Light_."  
  
"Nothing so far on my end."  
  
"Keep us informed." Riker departed the room.  
  
After he left Jarod asked, "Commander Riker seems distracted, or is that jjust me?  
  
"Commander Riker is still disturbed by what happened to the _Enterprise_ ," Data answered. "I believe losing the _Enterprise_ while it was under his command has caused a loss of self-confidence."  
  
Jarod noticed the change in Data's voice. It had lost the calm "statement of fact" element it usually had. "Data, you sound upset about it."  
  
There was a sense in Data's voice. "Quite," he said. "The _Enterprise_ was our home for several years. It's loss has caused emotional turmoil for the entire crew, myself included."  
  
"I could hear that in your voice," Jarod said. "Which is the surprising part. You have emotions now?"  
  
"Yes. I installed an emotion chip my creator made for me." Data showed a brief facial tic. Embarrassment, mostly. "I have had some issues with it, however, so I keep it in a low power state as I acclimate to my new emotions."  
  
"Good luck with that." Jarod remained intent on his work for a moment. "I'm not finding any signals."  
  
"Nor have I. But there is still a large volume of data to go through."  
  
"Yeah, tell me about it." Jarod took a moment to think. "What if we had help?", he asked.  
  
Data turned and faced him. "Help of what kind?", he asked with evident curiosity.  
  
"As part of our search for the Darglan facility, we have a decompiler program going over raw data from the 33LA data facility." Jarod hit some of the keys on his hard-light keyboard control to bring up the program from their main computers. "It was coded to sort through data and discover existing patterns for the purpose of recompiling fragmented data."  
  
"I see. You are suggesting we modify the program's parameters to discover isolated data packets that do not fit the data they are encapsulated in."  
  
"Exactly," Jarod said.  
  
"I will need to create a copy of the program to begin the modifications," Data noted.  
  
"Copying now and relaying to your station."  
  
The raw code of the program in question popped up on the screen. "This is a very well-crafted code."  
  
"I'll pass that compliment along to Na'ama Shaham."  
  
"I am now processing the logs through this program now. It will still take some time for every result to be found."  
  
"That gives us time to do direct examination of the rest of the logs." Jarod brought them back up. "The sooner we find this thing, the better."  
  
  
  
  
Lucy and Caterina pulled the scanner assembly into the main shuttle bay. Cat almost asked, again, if Lucy was sure it would work, but she got the sense it would just be annoying and insulting to do so. She didn't want to imply Lucy hadn't done it right, after all, she just wanted an outlet to her own nervousness about this entire situation. What should have been a relatively-quiet diplomatic affair was becoming scary.  
  
Even scarier were the pair of Romulans standing at the Romulan shuttle of the Ambassador. The pair, a man and a woman, were in those padded, sharp-shouldered gray uniforms with matching bowl-style haircuts that kept the hair trimmed away from their sharp Vulcanoid ears. The two eyed Lucy and Caterina suspiciously. Lucy immediately wheeled the scanner away from them and toward the lines of shuttles nearby. When they were behind one of the shuttles Lucy reached for her multidevice, popped up the hardlight keyboard, and typed something.  
  
A message popped up on Cat's own multidevice screen. _They can still hear us. We need to pretend we're doing maintenance on the shuttles. We'll find an opening for a closer scan when we can._  
  
Cat made a face at that. It sounded boring and monotonous, and wouldn't do anything to settle her from the fact that they were about to do something potentially dangerous. She tapped her own reply out. _Won't they be suspicious of me doing something like this?_  
  
Lucy gave her a look and typed a quick reply back. _That's what cross-training is for._ "I know you don't like it, Cat," she said out loud, "but orders are orders. They want to make sure you can do this work in an emergency."  
  
"But all of them?", Cat complained out loud.  
  
Lucy grinned. "Welcome to Operations duty, Cat. Now you get to see what _my_ life is like."  
  
  
  
  
A recess from the conference couldn't have come sooner for Robert. Hearing the go-around was taxing and it made him thankful that Ledosh was the one doing the talking for his end.  
  
It was with Ledosh that Robert left Conference 1 to head for the Lookout and a quick meal. They took a corner table when they arrived. Hargert himself came out of the back to provide them with the lunch he had prepared, a plate of toasted lunch sandwiches and grilled pork with a salad plate.  
  
"The arrival of the Romulans has been a complicating factor," Ledosh said.  
  
"More like a complete disruption," Robert answered. "And I don't think it's chance."  
  
"Yes." Ledosh nodded. "It would appear that someone here has a separate agenda. An agenda that includes thwarting these negotiations."  
  
Robert took a bite and chewed on it as he thought. When he was done he noticed Ledosh was looking at him with curiosity. "Yes?", he asked.  
  
"You are investigating?", Ledosh asked.  
  
He answered with a nod. "It's being looked into."  
  
"Of course." Ledosh took a small bite. "You seem more rested today. My advice to you did as you expected?"  
  
"Mostly."  
  
"But… this would have to do with why you are looking so tense in the meeting?"  
  
Robert sighed. "Last night I had the entire dream thing again. Toward the end, I saw us in the meeting. Tr'Lhaer was yelling something about war. And then… there was this big burst of white that filled the room."  
  
"Hrm." Ledosh considered that. "I admit I have felt my own trepidation today. I sense something is amiss. Beyond our diplomatic impasse."  
  
"Well, don't I feel better now," Robert muttered. He took another bite and tried to ignore the growing feeling that something was wrong. That they were all in danger.  
  
Ledosh looked at him closely. "I sense it now. How interesting."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Your _swevyra_ ," Ledosh said. "I knew you had potential. I had known since the day we first met on Gersal, when your organization made its official contact with the Gersallian people. But to feel it now…"  
  
Robert didn't know what to think about that. "So you're saying I have this… life force stuff?"  
  
"We all do," Ledosh noted. "But only some have a life force, a _swevyra_ , that can connect to the energy of the wider universe."  
  
"Including me?"  
  
Ledosh considered that question for a moment. "Yes."  
  
"So…" Robert put his food down and pushed the plate away. "Are you telling me I could end up doing the same things Lucy is learning to do?"  
  
Ledosh remained completely quiet for several moments. Robert got the idea he was deep in thought, making calculations of a sort or trying to find out how the conversation could go depending on what he said? Either way, he did finally nod. "Yes. With training. I'm not sure you would have the same power that Lucy and Meridina wield, _Swevyra_ is unique to each person. Your power may be more your connection to the flow of choice through time than to the energy fields of the here and now."  
  
"So I might always have future dreams, but never the ability to win gunfights with a sword?"  
  
That drew a bemused smile from the Gersallian elder. "An interesting way of putting that Captain. But yes, it is possible your abilities would be more for anticipating that which is to come than for using it to wield a _lakesh_."  
  
"Ah. Well. People think I'm crazy enough as it is without me running around with a sword jumping into gunfights," Robert mused.  
  
Ledosh showed a hint of wry amusement at that. "I understand that for your people, the idea of _swevyra_ and its potential can be outlandish and strange. It is hard to accept when it is not something you are used to. But it does exist and it is something you have potential in. You must always be wary of the darkness, however. The dark emotions, such as fear and anger inevitably lead to corruption of the _swevyra_ in a person. It encourages the indulgence of the darkest and most terrible parts of each of us."  
  
"This is why Meridina is giving that training to Lucy?"  
  
"In part, yes. She must learn to sense darkness and keep it out."  
  
Robert nodded in reply to that.  
  
"I am curious about you, Captain," Ledosh said. "You are one of a few people who can genuinely say you have played a major role in the events of our time. But you have often refused interviews on the matter."  
  
"I suppose they don't interest me that much," Robert remarked. "My place isn't as a politician."  
  
"Then what is your place?"  
  
Robert had to consider that a moment. "If anything? Helping people."  
  
"An admirable desire," the Gersallian replied. "But I should point out that many say such a thing, yet often cannot remain animated by it. Helping others, truly, often requires a strong underlying belief supporting that. The Code of Swenya provides myself and Meridina with that. We believe that by helping those in need, we increase the power of Light among living creatures and banish darkness. What do you believe in?"  
  
Robert remained quiet for a moment. What did he believe in? What made him this way? He sometimes wondered about it. It was easy to determine why the others did this. Leo was devoted to the principles of medicine and the ethics of being a physician. Julia believed in her ability to lead. Caterina loved to explore.  
  
Why did he want to be out here? Why did he want to put so much effort into helping others?  
  
Robert thought about the Shahams for a moment. And the DMZ Colonists he had rescued from the Cardassians. All of the times he had been able to improve someone's life and the joy it had given them. Was it just that simple? That he enjoyed their joy?  
  
After several moments, he knew it wasn't that.  
  
There was a tone from his multidevice. " _Jarod to Dale._ "  
  
Robert took in a breath. Jarod's call had broken his concentration. "Sorry, I need to take this," he said to Ledosh before he brought up his forearm. Robert reached his hand over and accepted the incoming communication. "Dale here."  
  
" _You might want to get to Science Lab 1 before the conference resumes. We may have something to show you._ "  
  
Robert looked at his unfinished lunch and at Ledosh. The Gersallian nodded. "I'm on my way. Dale out." He stood up. "My apologies for the short lunch, _Mastrash_."  
  
"Duty must always be attended to," Ledosh noted.  
  
"Thank you. I'll see you at the conference as quickly as I can get there."  
  
  
  
  
Going through the motions of scanning all of the shuttles had become an annoyance. Caterina frowned as they started working on the last line. "Anything yet?", she whispered, confident that they were far enough away now that even Romulan ears couldn't hear her.  
  
"Nothing," Lucy muttered back. She tapped her multidevice. The message " _Stop being impatient_ " popped up on Caterina's.  
  
"We're almost out of shuttles," Cat hissed. "We've got to find a way to get close."  
  
"Working on it," Lucy insisted. And she had been. And still was, because she couldn't think of anything to fix the problem.  
  
"We're running out of time," Cat hissed. "There has to be something we can do, something to lure them away."  
  
"They would never listen to us," Lucy answered.  
  
"Well, what else can we do?" Cat folded her arms. "It's not like they'll do it for us."  
  
"Ha, yeah…" Lucy stopped. Her brow furrowed as she thought about it for a moment. "Actually, now that you say that…"  
  
Caterina looked at her with confusion. "What?"  
  
Lucy took the scanner and began wheeling it back to the shuttle. "That's _exactly_ what I'm going to do."  
  
That caused Caterina to gawk. "What?!"  
  
Lucy hit a couple of keys on the scanner while they went along the shuttles and said nothing else. Once they cleared their rows of shuttles Lucy led Caterina straight toward the Romulan shuttle. The guards there tensed visibly and began to shift over to meet them. "Hey!" Lucy stopped about ten feet away. "We're making sure there are no radiation leaks in the shuttle bay, can we get permission to scan this one?"  
  
"The Ambassador's shuttle is off-limits, Human," the male guard said. "I would suggest you leave."  
  
"Well, if you insist," Lucy said. "I mean, what does neutron radiation do to you? So you can warn your physicians about the possible exposure?"  
  
"We're not letting you anywhere near the shuttle," the woman barked. "Leave now or there will be consequences."  
  
"Woh." Lucy raised her hands. "Here. If you don't want me to do it, why don't you do it?"  
  
The guards looked at each other. "Pardon?" the male asked.  
  
"The scanning interface is easy, you just hit this key" - and she showed the key - "and wait ten seconds. Boom, done, we know if your shuttle has a radiation problem. If it does, you know to be prepared and take precautions. If it doesn't, our job's done and we can walk away."  
  
The guards eyed each other. Finally the woman guard stepped away and up to the two of them. "I will tell you the result if it does no harm to the Ambassador."  
  
Lucy nodded and they waited patiently for the guard to do so. After running the scanner beside the shuttle the guard looked over the display. She hit a few buttons and the results vanished. "The ship is fine," she said, as if Lucy had insulted her with the prospect of it being otherwise. "Leave."  
  
"Thank you." Lucy took the scanner and, with a bewildered Caterina following her, wheeled it out of the shuttle bay.  
  
They made it a hall over before Caterina's stuttering, "W-wait" beam a "Hold on!" She jumped in front of Lucy and stopped her. "That's it? That guard deleted the results!"  
  
Lucy smirked and held up her right arm. Her multidevice display activated and showed the scan results. "Remote data connection," Lucy said, grinning. "The Romulan's attempt to isolate the scanner was good, but I'd already created the link in subroutines. It was a _bit_ out of their competency."  
  
Caterina responded by giggling. "Okay, that was awesome."  
  
"Let's get this to Lab 1."  
  
  
  
  
Picard and Riker arrived right after Robert did. "Mister Data, you found something?", Picard asked.  
  
"Yes, Captain," Data answered. He nodded to Jarod, who brought up a holographic display of what looked like a carrier signal. "This is the subspace communication that Captain Korsmo used two days ago when our ships began to take up position near the _Pillar_. This is, by all accounts, a normal Starfleet transmission."  
  
"Someone hid a secondary transmission in the same carrier wave," Jarod added, noting a discolored spot in the graphic.  
  
"Why didn't the _Excalibur_ notice this?", Riker asked.  
  
"For the same reason we didn't, sir," Data replied. "The signal was hidden in the peak points of transmission. We only discovered it after running it through a data pattern recognition program."  
  
"This is a sophisticated method well beyond anything someone can just throw together," Jarod noted. "This was made to allow someone to hide their subspace communications from almost any observation."  
  
"And whomever it was wanted Ambassador tr'Lhaer to interrupt our summit," Picard observed.  
  
"I don't suppose there's any way to see where this was sent from _Excalibur_?", Robert asked.  
  
"I am afraid there is not," Data responded.  
  
"So we know a message was sent, but not who sent it." Robert took a chair. "Suggestions?"  
  
"We're trying to decrypt the fragment we have now," Jarod said. "But I wouldn't hold out hope that it'll do more than confirm what we already know."  
  
The door slid open and Lucy and Caterina came in. "Jarod, I'm relaying the results to you now," Lucy said, tapping the keys on her multidevice.  
  
Jarod looked back to his screen as the scan results came up. Data looked at it as well. "Intriguing. But also quite disturbing."  
  
"Data?", Picard asked.  
  
"If these sensor readings are correct, the unexplained power signature may be from an ultritium device. There are traces of ultritium detectable on the hatch area of the Romulan shuttle, suggestive of the presence of an ultritium device of some magnitude."  
  
"So you're telling me the Romulans smuggled a _bomb_ onto my ship?" Robert asked.  
  
"That is a possibility, yes," Data said. "However, I am not entirely convinced that the ultritium occurred merely from passive exposure."  
  
Jarod nodded. "The concentrations seem off."  
  
"Can you explain why?", Picard asked.  
  
"I am afraid I cannot. I would need to get a closer scan of the shuttle in question."  
  
"Good luck with that," Lucy said. "They would have shot at us if we had tried. I had to talk them into doing the scan themselves."  
  
"If you could provide a distraction, I can get a tricorder close enough to confirm the authenticity of the readings," Data said.  
  
"I'll keep at the message." Jarod tapped a screen to bring it back up. "Just to see if there's useful."  
  
"Lucy, go with Data," Robert said. "Cat, I think you need to get to the bridge." He checked the time stamp on his device. "The meeting should be resuming shortly."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With war raging in Universe S4W8, the Aurora is sent on a crucial diplomatic mission to win allies in the S5T3 (Star Trek) Universe.

Their return to Conference 1 was just in the nick of time. It was clear the assembled diplomats had not regained their patience from the break. Robert could feel the tension in the room as if it were ready to explode.  
  
"Interesting," tr'Lhaer said. His voice was harsh. "An Alliance and Federation captain returning together, late, as if they had been in deep conversation, and after your personnel insisted on the scanning of my shuttle."  
  
T'Latrek looked to Picard. "Captain, I require an explanation."  
  
Picard appraised her evenly. "We have been investigating a possible security leak, Madame Councillor."  
  
"A security leak?", Gleer demanded. "From whom?"  
  
"We're not sure," Robert said. "We're still conducting the investigation."  
  
"And you would accuse me."  
  
"No, Ambassador, I'm not. Yet." Robert went to his seat. "I want to find the offender so the task at hand can resume."  
  
"Pah!" Kurn threw his hands forward in frustration. "The only way we will make progress, it seems, is if one of us guts that whining _petaQ_." Kurn's eyes were firmly on Tr'Lhaer.  
  
"If you wish war with the Romulan Empire, Klingon, you need only ask. You might want to consult your allies first."  
  
T'Latrek raised an eyebrow. "Hostility will get us nowhere."  
  
"Why would I not be surprised if it was you who told the Romulans, T'Latrek?", Gleer shouted. "You know you can't prevail on this matter in the Council so this is an end-run around a vote you lost!"  
  
T'Latrek gave Gleer a condescending look in reply. "Councillor Gleer, unlike certain Councillors I might name, I am unwilling to stoop to such measures simply over a lost vote."  
  
Gleer jumped to his feet. "Are you accusing me of something, T'Lat...!"  
  
"That's enough!", Robert shouted. "I…"  
  
Before he could finish, he was interrupted by a tone at his multidevice. " _Jarod to Dale. Priority One. We may have determined the origin of the message…_ "  
  
As Jarod continued speaking, with all listening, Robert suddenly got a sense of terrible danger. Imminent, sudden death was coming upon them. Robert stopped speaking and looked across the room, at the infuriated Gleer, the tense T'Latrek, the irritated tr'Lhaer, the frustrated Kurn, Ledosh and his subtle body language hiding displeasure, Picard and his usual diplomatic patience, and…  
  
…and Tanno. The Bolian. Who looked emotionless at the display. More emotionless than even Data had been, with or without an emotion chip.  
  
Tanno, who refused to be beamed, and who insisted on coming aboard on a personal shuttle.  
  
Tanno looked at him. And a small smile crossed the Bolian's lips.  
  
Robert knew he didn't have time. He jumped from his seat and ran toward the door. This brought the bewildered attention of everyone present. "What is the meaning of this?", T'Latrek asked Ledosh, pointedly.  
  
"I suspect," Ledosh said, "that Captain Dale has realized something, and is running to save our lives."  
  
"Save us? From what?!", Kurn demanded.  
  
"From what indeed." Ledosh closed his eyes and focused with his own _sweyvra_ , from decades of practice and use of its abilities and its insights. He turned his head toward the Federation table. He faced down Secretary Tanno.  
  
A moment later, Tanno disappeared in a swirling pillar of white light.  
  
Gleer and T'Latrek looked especially taken aback. Scotty activated his multidevice's comm unit. "Scott t' Bridge! We just had a beamout, can ye track it?"  
  
" _Sensors already registered it, Commander Scott_ ," replied Lieutenant Jupap. " _But we cannot determine a point of origin._ "  
  
"This is… not logical," T'Latrek said, frowning. "That Exterior Secretary Tanno would be some sort of enemy agent…"  
  
"An agent of whom, I wonder?", Gleer stared daggers at tr'Lhaer.  
  
"He is not one of mine", tr'Lhaer protested.  
  
Kurn barked with laughter. "As if you would tell the truth, Romulan."  
  
"I'll not be insulted by…"  
  
Ledosh struck the table to interrupt the verbal altercation. "Presumably an agent of a power that wishes your governments, as well as our own, to go to war," Ledosh pointed out. "An agent with great technological support and the ability to effortlessly infiltrate another government."  
  
Picard frowned. "The Dominion, in other words."  
  
"Yes." Ledosh nodded. "And now, I suspect we will live or die given what Captain Dale does in the next few minutes."  
  
  
  
  
Robert's heart thumped like a piston as he raced out of the turbolift and continued on to the shuttle bay. "Dale to Lucero! Pick up!"  
  
A moment later a bewildered Lucy asked, " _Captain, is everything…?_ "  
  
"Forget the Romulan shuttle!," he shouted. "It's a decoy! Scan the Federation shuttle and get an EVA suit ready, I'm going to need it!"  
  
" _What… why…_ "  
  
"Just do it!"  
  
Robert kept running as fast as his legs could carry him. Perhaps faster than he'd ever run before. He nearly ran into the shuttle bay doors from his speed, as it was he had to turn toward his side to slip between them.  
  
The Romulan guards were staring while Data and Lucy were scanning Tanno's shuttle. "I'm picking up a power signature," Lucy said. "It looks like it just became active." She gestured to the EVA suit.  
  
"Open the shuttle!" Robert grabbed the suit and began pulling it on. It was an emergency-use life support EVA suit so it was designed to be slipped on in seconds, even accounting for him temporarily removing his multidevice to fit it over the suit. By the time he was grabbing the helmet for it, Data was finishing the override on the shuttle door.  
  
Inside the shuttle, toward the back, was a large device. White light pulsed within it at a steady rate.  
  
Lucy paled as she scanned it. "There's enough ultritium inside to vaporize most of the ship. We'd probably lose _Excalibur_ and _Pillar of Light_ in the blast."  
  
Data was also examining it. "The device includes a field inhibitor for transporters. Neither Starfleet nor Alliance transporter systems will be able to remove the device."  
  
Robert slid around the device and went to the helm of the shuttle. "I know." He started activating keys, starting with a quick press to his multidevice. "Dale to bridge."  
  
" _Bridge here_ ," Julia answered.  
  
"Warm up the jump drive and prepare a jump point. Preferably somewhere uninhabited.."  
  
" _Right._ "  
  
"Everyone stand clear!", Robert shouted back.  
  
"What are you doing?", Lucy asked.  
  
"Saving our lives," he answered as he hit the key to close the aft door. Even before it finished closing Robert keyed the thrusters. The shuttle lifted up under him and quickly flew toward the exit of the shuttlebay.  
  
  
  
  
Picard and Caterina stepped out onto the bridge while Julia watched the Federation shuttle fly away from them, roughly toward Enceladus. "What's going on?"  
  
"A Changeling infiltrator is attempting to blow up our summit," Picard explained. Behind him Caterina dismissed al-Rashad from the Science station. "It appears Captain Dale anticipated the Changeling's plan before he could trigger it properly."  
  
"He's gotten the bomb out, can we beam him out now?", Julia asked.  
  
Cat shook her head. "According to Data, that thing's got enough ultritium in it to blow us all up. And it's almost done counting down."  
  
Julia realized what Robert was planning at that moment. "Be ready to beam him out as soon as we can."  
  
" _Dale to_ Aurora _. I think this thing is about to blow. Is that jump ready yet?_ "  
  
Julia looked at Jupap, who nodded. "I have located an abandoned system with a tethering probe for future scientific expeditions."  
  
"Hopefully they won't miss that. Open jump point now, Mister Jupap."  
  
"Yes, Commander."  
  
Julia returned to the command chair and Picard took up the chair to her left. They watched on the screen as the shuttle drew further away. Ahead of the shuttle a point of green light expanded into the swirling green of an interuniversal jump point.  
  
She closed her eyes. _Get out of there. Now. Please!_  
  
  
  
  
Robert watched the jump point open up. A glance back told him it was just in time; the rapid pulsing of the device made it clear that it was about to explode.  
  
Knowing he only had seconds, Robert cut the artificial gravity in the shuttle. He remotely activated the rear hatch. Before it had even finished sliding open, he finished slaving the shuttle inertial dampener fields to his multi-device and pushed himself toward the back.  
  
As soon as he had clearance, he killed the inertial dampeners. Without them the inertia of the shuttle's acceleration acted immediately upon him, flinging him toward the back of the shuttle. Had he not opened the hatch, this would have been fatal.  
  
But he had opened the hatch. Instead, doing so proved his salvation.  
  
Aside from a couple of training walks during his time training with Admiral Maran, Robert had never bothered to go EVA often. He'd always been busy with the other elements of the job. It was something special, unique, to be out in the void of space. No starship, no station, nothing around him but empty void and the distant forms of the four starships gathered here. For a moment he took in the sight of Saturn's rings and realized that he'd been missing something special.  
  
Then he remembered _why_ he had done this and returned his attention to the shuttle.  
  
The shuttle flew into the maw of the jump point. It began to recede, pulled through to another universe, where its deadly ultritium bomb would explode harmlessly. Robert began to breathe easier. "I did it," he murmured to himself. "I…"  
  
The bomb exploded.  
  
And the world turned red and then pitch black.  
  
  
  
  
Julia watched in horror as a powerful light erupted from within the jump point. "The device went off!", Caterina shouted.  
  
"All hands brace for impact!"  
  
"I'm not picking up a blast wave," Jupap said. "Puzzling."  
  
"The jump point!", Cat screamed.  
  
Julia had already seen it. The jump point, once vibrant green, was turning a distinct blood red color. "I'm detecting some form of energy shift within the point," Jupap observed.  
  
"The bomb went off right within the transit," Caterina said. "It's done… something to the jump point. I'm not sure…"  
  
Julia didn't care at that moment. "Get Rob out of there!", she shouted. "Now!"  
  
Jupap was busy working on his controls. "We cannot achieve a lock! The jump point is distorting space-time around itself, we can't lock on to Captain Dale's signature."  
  
"Then get closer!", she yelled.  
  
Locarno shook his head. "I can't. Any closer and we'll enter the gravitational shear, it'll tear us in half."  
  
 _This can't be happening_ , Julia thought. _No. No no no this can't be…_  
  
"What if we used the deflector to generate a… no… or…" Caterina pounded her hands on the control console.  
  
"Do something, Julia," Angel demanded, from her seat at tactical. Her eyes were fixed on the screen, showing Robert - a small figure in an EVA suit - at the edge of the destabilized jump point. He was spinning around and looked like he was literally in the eye of the storm. "Julia, _God dammit, do something!_ "  
  
Julia's mind was racing. They couldn't move closer, they couldn't get a transporter lock… "Jupap, can we… can't we do something to…"  
  
"It's too late," the Alakin said. "He's caught in the gravity well. It's pulling him in."  
  
Everyone on the bridge could do nothing but watch in horror as Robert disappeared into the maw of the destabilized jump point.  
  
A moment afterward, a burst of powerful energy erupted from within the point. "Shields!", Julia shouted. When the wavefront struck them, the _Aurora_ shuddered violently under their feet.  
  
"Shields held," Jupap reported. " _Mok'ba_ and _Excalibur_ report no damage… _Pillar_ reports slight hull damage from their shields being overwhelmed."  
  
Julia barely paid attention to the report. Tears started to flow down her eyes. "Robby," she breathed, in a voice so low only Picard could hear it. "No… no, not now…"  
  
Locarno looked back at her and at the others. Caterina was starting to weep. Her older sister was just staring off into space. He felt his own face turn red with embarrassment at seeing Picard look uncomfortable in the chair, obviously willing to assume command, but not willing to insult Julia in the process. "Commander?", Locarno asked gently.  
  
Julia swallowed and looked at him. Red was starting to clash with the green of her eyes. "Lower shields." She reached to the intercom button. "This is Commander Andreys. All sections, report any injuries to medbay. Bridge out." She pressed the button again and drew in a breath.  
  
" _Ledosh to Bridge. The delegates are most anxious to find out what has happened._ "  
  
Julia looked wearily ahead. "Captain Picard, would you please go inform them of what happened?", she asked. "I… I need to call Admiral Maran. And... " She closed her eyes and didn't want to say it. "And I need to talk to Beth. And Zack. And…"  
  
"I understand," Picard said. "If you need anything, let me know."  
  
"Commander, Captain, a moment," Jupap said.  
  
That drew everyone's attention to the Alakin officer. "I believe it may be premature to give up on Captain Dale. According to the last readings from his suit, he was still alive. Within the threshold of the jump point."  
  
Caterina blinked. "The gravitational sheer, though.."  
  
"I may suggest that the explosion had unknown effects upon the gravity profile of the jump point. Commander Jarod will probably know better than I."  
  
Julia suppressed a sniffle and breathed in. "Right. Cat, get with Jarod, go down to Lab 1 and go over the sensor logs. I want to know if we can find any way of discovering where Rob… where Captain Dale was sent by the point before it collapsed."  
  
Picard tapped his comm badge. "Picard to Data. Mister Data, report to Commander Jarod in Science Lab 1 immediately, he will require your assistance on a crucial project."  
  
" _Yes Captain_ ," Data answered.  
  
Picard looked at Julia. "Commander, you will have the full cooperation of myself and my officers in this affair."  
  
"Thank you, Captain Picard. But it's best if you return to the summit meeting." Her face hardened. "Remind them that they'd be dead if Rob hadn't sacri… hadn't done what he did."  
  
Picard nodded and left the bridge.  
  
  
  
  
The delegates took the news somberly. Ledosh nodded as Picard finished describing what had happened. "Thank you, Captain."  
  
"My thanks are to your people, Emissary Ledosh," Picard answered. He looked to the others. "There is still hope that we can discover a way to retrieve Captain Dale. Regardless, his actions saved the lives of every person in this room today, and may have prevented a terrible war in the process. It's clear that the Dominion infiltrator's intent was to frame the Romulan government for the explosion."  
  
Tr'Lhaer nodded stiffly at that. "The Romulan government is thankful that this base manipulation was not brought to fruition. We extend our best wishes to the people of the Alliance for the recovery of their brave officer,"  
  
"Indeed." Picard nodded slightly at him. "Of course, you must also realize, sir, that your presence here was meant to help foster this issue. The least you can do is to be more supportive of the Alliance's diplomatic efforts."  
  
"I have instructions from my government, Captain Picard," tr'Lhaer pointed out. "I cannot diverge from them."  
  
"Of course. But you can work to ensure a more pacific tone to the discussions." Picard turned to face his own table. "As can we all. Now, I believe there was a matter of proposals for material aid to consider?"  
  
Gleer nodded. "There is, yes." He eyed T'Latrek briefly. "And we should focus on business."  
  
"Agreed," T'Latrek concurred.  
  
  
  
  
Angel had easily gotten Julia's permission to leave the bridge. She returned to her quarters, as unused as they had been lately, and sat on the bed.  
  
How… how could he be gone? How could Robert be gone? After all of this, all of the close calls, the desperate battles, he gets lost _here_?  
  
A part of her wanted to go to the gym and beat on a punching bag until her fists and feet became numb. Another part of her wanted to curl up and just die.  
  
Why couldn't they just be happy?  
  
There was a chime at the door. "Sis?" Caterina's voice called from outside. "Angel? Please?"  
  
"Go away," Angel moaned.  
  
Of course, Caterina didn't go. Just as Angel wouldn't have gone if their roles had been reversed. She entered Angel's quarters and looked at her sister. "We'll find him," Cat promised.  
  
"You know that?", Angel asked. "You absolutely, positively know that?"  
  
Caterina nodded. "Yeah. I mean, between Jarod and Data? We've got this. We'll have this."  
  
"I thought… maybe this time… this would work, you know," Angel said. "Maybe…"  
  
Cat put her arms around her sister's shoulders and leaned her head against Angel's neck. "It'll be okay. We'll get Rob back."  
  
Angel couldn't find a way to answer her. All she could do was weep bitterly.  
  
  
 **Tag**  
  
  
Cat returned to Science Lab 1 even with the hour having grown late. Jarod and Data were still looking over a sensor model of the jump point after the explosion distorted it. "I would concur with your hypothesis," Data said to Jarod. "The ultritium explosion produced enough energy to distort the horizon of the jump point, causing a dimensional shift."  
  
Caterina blinked at that and walked up to the holo-display. "I didn't think that could happen. Jump points are supposed to destabilize when introduced to that much energy."  
  
"Normally, yes," Jarod said. "But the explosion went off within the point itself instead of outside of it. That caused the shift."  
  
The door opened and Julia entered. Picard was following her. "Do you have something for us yet?", Julia asked.  
  
"Maybe so, Commander," Data answered. "We have ascertained that when the ultritium compound detonated the explosion occurred within the jump point's transition horizon."  
  
"In other words, it happened at the exact point when a ship transits between universes, Mister Data?", Picard asked.  
  
"Correct, sir. Commander Jarod and I have found evidence in the sensor logs that this timing caused the jump point to be shifted dimensionally."  
  
"As in to a different universe from the one we'd selected?", Julia asked.  
  
"No." Jarod shook his head. "As in, the point no longer bridged universes. It went somewhere else."  
  
Caterina looked up from the model. She was gawking in shock. "Or some _when_ else."  
  
Julia gave Cat a look. "Caterina?"  
  
"The tachyon surge, the neutrino shifting… this… this really happened. I… I never imagined."  
  
"Mister Data…" Picard gave his operations officer a bewildered look. "Are you saying that the explosion turned the interuniversal jump point into a _temporal_ point?"  
  
"We are running simulations to confirm, but that is our best hypothesis so far," Data replied. "It is our estimation that when Captain Dale was pulled through the destabilized jump point, he was deposited into a different time."  
  
"How different?", Julia asked.  
  
"We are uncertain. Further calculation will need to be made to determine a reasonable range, Commander."  
  
Julia shook her head. _In time? Robert's been lost… in time?_ "Then… if he is in another time…"  
  
"....how do we get him back?", Jarod finished for her.  
  
  
  
  
Robert was surprised when he felt awareness returning. Light poured into his vision the moment he cracked his eyes open. His sides hurt, his arms hurt… just about everything hurt, in fact.  
  
Through the chaos and confusion in his head Robert tried to remember things. He remembered sending the shuttle off into the jump point. He remembered the explosion. Red the shade of blood filling his vision. And then… just a feeling of drifting. No real memory, nothing he could grasp.  
  
In confusion he sat up. "Leo?", he called out. His back protested to the act of sitting up. "Is this…"  
  
"Ah, you're awake."  
  
Robert heard the voice and turned. The intense light had blurred his vision for the moment and he could only make out a general humanoid figure. "Hello?"  
  
There were words exchanged. The figure he was looking at initially moved out of sight. Two more, however, were in sight. He tried to focus on them and eventually chose the center figure.  
  
Human. Male. A uniform of some kind, aesthetically familiar, but not quite the same. The primary color was blue, he thought.  
  
The man he was looking at looked at the figure to his right. Robert could only see a blob of gray; his vision was still coming back.  
  
"Where am I?" Robert swallowed. "My name is Robert Dale. I'm Captain of the _Starship Aurora_."  
  
That prompted the man to look back at him. "Captain Dale?", the man asked.  
  
"Yes," Robert replied.  
  
"Of the _Starship Aurora_ ," the man continued.  
  
"Yes."  
  
The figure in gray to the other man's side seemed to look more intently at Robert. But said nothing.  
  
"I've never heard of that ship, I'm afraid," the man said.  
  
 _Did I get sucked into another universe?_ , Robert wondered. With his eyes clearing up he was able to make out the features on the other man's face. He was middle-aged, with some lines on his eyes and brow from responsibility and stress. Robert blinked and focused to get in the other details. Caucasian skin tone. Light brown eyes. Brown hair. "Where am I?", asked Robert.  
  
The man looked at him intently for a moment. As if he was uncertain of Robert was. But he gave his answer only a moment later.  
  
"I'm Captain Jonathan Archer," the man said. "And you're on board the Earth _Starship Enterprise_."


End file.
